Locked in the Dark
by Queen000
Summary: AU - Rinoa Heartily has found herself in a situation she never imagined could happen to her. Written for the 'Where I Belong' August Challenge Rated M for Mature Themes. 09/21/2012 - Fully Edited with a 10% margin for error. Lemme know if you catch any typos!
1. Chapter 1: Abandoned and Alone

_So I find myself in the very awkward predicament I always find myself in when plot bunnies and my muse decide to pay me a visit. I know I should be working on my novel (and to be fair I actually was) but Ashbear contacted me about this August Challenge and I wanted to participate, only to have writer's block kick me in my non-existent nuts and force me to struggle with this entry. I'm not altogether sure that this will make the challenge since I'm supposed to have the whole thing done by the end of the month and this story that I'm posting right now is two parted, but I figured I'd post it up anyway. _

_This story is a little darker than I'm used to writing. Actually, this is a story I've actually been thinking about and writing (off and on) for about three years now, so I'm actually rather proud of it. I hope you guys enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it, and for those of you who are unimpressed and offended by the subject matter that takes place throughout, I apologize for your discomfort. More on that when we actually get to those parts in question but I figured I would start with the apologizing now (because there will most likely be a lot of it to come)._

**Disclaimer: **_I do not own Final Fantasy VIII, it's characters or the world they live in. I do not profit from any monetary gain from writing this story. This is purely for entertainment purposes, for both myself the writer and the people the reader. Please don't sue, I barely make enough to live off as it is._

**01/17/2013 -**_ K, so I've been going through the chapters and I've touched them up some. The blaring typos should be gone this time around. Also, I decided to put some effort in the title names, but I wanted to keep them vague so they didn't spoil anything. Hope it worked and hope you guys like.  
_

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_Drip…drip…drip…_

She jerked awake, confused that her cheek was pressed down against what felt like stone cool enough to chill her face. The sudden, jarring motion was enough to send stiff pain rushing through her neck and caused aching muscles that she hadn't even known existed to cry out in protest. As she tried to rub out the stiffness and the aches with arms heavy from disuse, she looked at her surroundings in what was at first in dull confusion before it transformed into a full blown panic. These surroundings were unfamiliar to her and even given the dim light that washed over the area and gave it a dull yellowish twinge she doubted she would have recognized them. With this uneasy realization came an adrenaline rush so powerful that she was up onto her feet within seconds, aches and pains forgotten in her haste to know how she'd come to be in this place. The stone that threaded cold up through the thin socks she wore caused her to shiver, her arms sporting gooseflesh from the sudden chill that practically cocooned her form.

She walked the area of what turned out to be a cell of some kind as a means of keeping herself warm as much as finding out where she was. She tried to rationalize just how she managed to find herself in a place like this, knowing that she wasn't the type of person to enjoy submission fantasies, and was eternally grateful that math was not required to learn just how big this place was. It had never really been a favourite subject of hers to begin with. Against the far wall opposite of where she'd awoken she spotted a cot – a pitiful thing made of some substandard looking metal with only a thin sheet fabric to support her should she have chosen to lie in it (though the question begged why had she been sleeping on the floor and _not _in it?) – as well as a toilet positioned diagonally from that very corner and a sink with a facet that steadily dripped water atop the metal ring that surrounded the mouth of the drain.

Her attention moved back to the cot, where she was dismayed to discover that there wasn't a single pillow in sight. Back at home her bed was covered with them for decorative purposes with two rather large ones to serve her as she slept. She did notice a blanket that looked about as thick as the socks she wore and about as comfortable as the cot itself looked, though it was little consolation as she doubted it would stave off the cold should she find herself lying beneath it.

But despite having already managed to figure out her surroundings, there was the very major dilemma of just how she'd come to find herself in this dump in the first place. Again not one prone to indulge in fantasies that limited her personal freedom, she found herself hard pressed in knowing just how she'd come to be here. Wracking her befuddled mind for some kind of explanation, she was initially unable to answer this question but then it all came back to her with such a force that she physically staggered as though someone had sucker punched her in the stomach.

_Coming out of the school building, her hands were digging through her knapsack in search of her cellphone. She would be damned if she was walking home on top of having to come to school for the next two weeks. If she wasn't going to laugh it up on vacation like the rest of her classmates then the least her parents could do was give her a ride. But all attempts at finding the precious object were lost as something flew up over her head, obscuring her vision and immediately causing her to panic. She tried to draw breath enough to scream but choked on the stale air that was left in the sack that was being used to blind her. Raising her arms instinctively she attempted to fight off her attacker, her knapsack hitting the ground as a result of her wild and frenzied movements. Sadly, whoever had caught her off guard was much stronger and held the advantage, almost lifting her up physically from the ground and causing her to kick out wildly in an attempt of escape. She was then half-carried, half- dragged in a direction she was sure was away from her high school before she was dropped down non-too-gently onto a hollow-sounding metallic surface, only to realize it was a car or some kind of vehicle just as they started moving. _

_She couldn't tell where they were going, not with the bag over her head and her hands securely fastened behind so as not to liberate herself of the smelly thing. She couldn't even tell how long she had been forced to sit on knees pressed flat against the metal floor of the car but then she heard the _whoosh _of a door sliding open and then she was dragged away again. Up a flight of stairs then down another, she was completely disoriented and clueless of where they were headed, but then she was being pushed forward with the hateful bag finally being removed from over her head, revealing to her eyes the first sight she was allowed to see…_

… A dim and disgusting old cell. The very one she had found herself in when she'd awoken.

It was then that Rinoa Heartily realized that she hadn't just woken up and imagined the whole thing, that it hadn't been some bizarre and terrifying dream and that she truly was trapped. When she'd first arrived she had screamed and yelled until she was hoarse in the throat, her kidnappers a blur of colours as she couldn't even bring their faces to her mind. Not once did anyone investigate the noise, not once was she even heeded. Both emotionally and physically drained from the events that had brought her to this point, she had fallen asleep on the cold concrete floor, propped up against the stone wall like a ragdoll.

At least she knew why her neck was bothering her, not that it was any consolation as the realization only made her feel worse, not better. She slid back down into her previous position against the wall and tucked her knees beneath her chin, not even fighting the tears that were now sliding down her cheeks. She sniffled brokenly at the hopelessness of her situation, at the feeling of being trapped and being unable to do a thing about it. All she wanted to do was go home and finish her boring homework like a normal school girl would, before bitching about life as a teenage girl in general. But apparently someone had other plans for her, which left her sitting alone in this shithole feeling sorry for herself.

She had no means of knowing just how long she'd been sitting there staring at a solitary point in the floor as she let the tears fall and sniffled. Her long dark hair had fallen forward in her posture, thus obscuring everything but the floor from her view and after a while it became just as annoying as the steady, almost rhythmic drip of the facet. After a while she finally threw her head back in an attempt to force the strands from her face, running her hands through the locks to keep them that way when she spotted a blinking red light diagonally across from her. It took her a moment to recognize it as an older looking security camera.

Slowly, almost tentatively, she rose to her feet, moving cautiously as though the camera was a hunter lurking in the shadows, simply waiting for the moment when its prey was at its most vulnerable. At the very sight of it she felt something other than hopelessness take root in her. Anger raged within at having been kidnapped and brought to this dump, closely intermingled with the indignation she felt at being watched, no doubt like a piece of meat waiting for the slaughter. Instantly hands were balled into fists so tight that her nails dug into the palms and sent flashing of pain up into her wrists but she was far from caring as she drew in a breath and let it out in a scream that could have been compared to that of a petulant child in the grocery store, one who had just been told to put back the candy-bar they had snatched from the shelf and desperately wanted more than anything in the world.

"You think this is _funny_?!" Rinoa roared loudly as the adrenaline ran through her veins and fuelled her every motion. The echo that blasted off the walls had only just begun before she was shouting again. "You think it's _hilarious _to watch as an innocent and helpless girl suffers like this?! Does it make you feel all powerful inside, knowing that I was barely even allowed to _fight back_ when you grabbed me?!"

She began to pace the length of her cage much like a lion would stalk the bars ahead for a means of escape. Back and forth, back and forth. Five long strides from one side to the other only served to fuel her aggravation before she stopped suddenly and resumed her yelling, screaming fitfully into the camera that stared back at her uncaringly, that red light blinking in and out of existence in a boring monotone. "What do you _want _from me?! What did I ever do to _anyone _to deserve being locked away like this by you _sick freaks_?! What the hell do you want from me?!"

The last of her shout collapsed in on itself as the grief caught up with her, dispelling the anger and leaving only sorrow in its wake. She collapsed much like her strength, folding herself up into a ball as she let out a broken sob. Yelling hadn't made her feel any better. It had made her throat hurt worse than it already did, and the painful knot that tied up her stomach twisted and tightened at knowing that the camera would never answer back at her.

"They can't hear you."

Rinoa's head snapped up at the sound, and she stared at the camera in wonder. The ridiculousness of thinking that the camera had actually responded quickly caught up with her and she looked around for any sign of the speaker, realizing fitfully that she wasn't alone. But it was during her second sweep that she noticed something that had not always been there. Beyond the cell was darkness – the dim light-bulb that cascaded its yellow glow along herself and the contents of her cell did not stretch beyond the boundaries of the bars, thus making anything beyond the cage look thick with darkness. But wrapped almost leisurely around two of the bars and barely coming together to rest wrist atop wrist were a set of arms that had not been there when she'd first arrived.

The voice was deep yet young and instantly Rinoa knew that whoever it belonged to was male. Instantly she stood up, suddenly ashamed at her earlier display but she forced herself to stand tall. They would not see her fall any lower than she already had. Lifting her chin almost defiantly, she squinted in an effort to see beyond the shadows, to make out her visitor – keeper. All she could tell from her brief inspection was that he had dark coloured bangs that nearly shielded away light grey eyes from her view. He was white – the skin along his arms betrayed that much more, but otherwise she had no clue what he looked like.

She gaped at him for a long instant, struggling not to blink because she was almost afraid that he was a figment of her imagination and that blinking would cause him to disappear, to leave her alone once again. She assured herself that the presence of this stranger who had just witnessed her throw a vocal temper-tantrum was better than being left alone in the darkness, with only a dull light and the steady _drip_ of a facet to keep her company. But when she could not hold her eyes open any longer she was forced to do the one thing she fought against, only to realize as she opened her eyes once more that he was still there.

She was aware that he had said something, but the shock at not being alone in this place anymore had drawn her attention away from the words he had spoken. Thus she was only able to stare stupidly at him as she struggled beyond the surprise to find her voice. Eventually, she managed it, and was barely able to squeak out a tentative and very confused sounding "What?"

"The camera," the boy on the other side responded simply, as though she hadn't just greeted him with surprise, suspicion and otherwise hope that he truly existed. There was a minute shift from the shadows that she barely managed to grasp, and she realized after a moment that he had gestured to the offending machine. "They can't hear a word you're saying through the camera. It's pointless to scream and yell at them, you'll only tire yourself out. Don't look at it," he added when she'd been about to do just that. "They can still see you, and I'd rather they not realize you're talking to someone."

"They can see me," Rinoa echoed in just barely above a whisper. "But they can't _hear _me?" Resisting the urge to look at the contraption, she realized that it really did look ancient. She knew that really old cameras lacked the function of transmitting sound and was only capable of recording video. It meant that her kidnappers probably didn't have the money to maintain proper security, which meant they probably weren't thinking of keeping her full-time. She let out a whimper as she realized they probably wouldn't even let her live all that long either.

"What do they want from me?" She finally asked after a while of silence. She cursed herself for sounding so desperate, so vulnerable.

"You're father's a very important and wealthy man," the young man said at great length.

"So it's money related," Rinoa said through a sigh that escaped her. She didn't know if it was better or worse that it wasn't personal, that her being here was not a result of something she had done. It was very true what he had just told her. Her father really _was _an important business man, with enough money that he and his family had enough to survive with plenty to spare. He was also a very stringent man, one who dutifully believed in upholding the law and she had been raised to believe in the police that helped keep their streets clear of crime. There was very little of it where she lived but she was far from naïve enough to truly believe it had been wiped from everywhere else.

Knowing that her father had fired and had arrested many employees he had caught embezzling from the company or otherwise breaking the law had her wonder for a fleeting moment if it had something to do with that. But no, the way the boy had said it seemed to suggest that it really was money that was the motivator here. Had she been raised in a household where they struggled day in and day out to make ends meet she doubted she would even be here.

The boy made a contemplative noise that broke her out of her thoughts and she whirled around, feeling like she had just missed something. "What?"

"Despite the tantrum, you're not freaking out near as bad as all the others did," he remarked candidly, almost off-handedly. Rinoa could only stare at him as this declaration sunk in. It further solidified her belief that her father was only being targeted because he was wealthy, not because he had wronged someone and they were looking out for revenge. But it also meant that they had done this before, and that they knew what they were doing.

She allowed herself to fall onto her knees again, the weight of this declaration too much for her to process. But as she sat there she wondered if this boy had been sent to keep an eye on her, and suddenly wondered what the camera was for if they did something like that. "Are you with these guys?" She asked in a small voice. "Are you a part of their group."

"No," he answered simply, with the equivalent to a verbal shrug. "I just live here."

And she felt her strength return upon hearing that very answer, because she realized that he was not at all a part of the people who had kidnapped her. Furthermore, there was one blaring bit of information she had ignored in her crestfallen state. "But _you're _on the other side of the bars," she said slowly. "_You're _not their prisoner. You're free."

He shrugged – she knew he shrugged from how the arms raised up momentarily before returning to their resting place. "So that means _you _could let me out of here."

"No I can't."

His tone grew hard, almost intimidatingly so, as he spoke the words. It caused Rinoa to flinch, left her reeling as though he had just physically slapped her, leaving her confused. If he wasn't with them, then why was he allowing them to keep her locked up? "Why not?" she asked.

"Because I _can't_," he answered back, still with that sharp tone. Rinoa frowned at the non-answer and was about to respond when he beat her to it. "Those guys wouldn't be happy if I did something like that. And anyways, I don't have the keys."

"But you could," Rinoa started.

"_No_," came the stern reply as he cut her off.

Rinoa scowled, not particularly caring at all whether her kidnappers were happy or not with her escaping from them. "But I don't belong here!" She exclaimed. "I was at school and then I was here when I should be at home with my parents. I didn't ask to be taken here, it just happened that way because _they _brought me here. And you _know _that. You're not stupid, they've done this before, I know they have! And if this isn't their first time, you probably know what'll happen to me once they get what they want. I'm in danger, my _life _is in danger, don't you see that? Don't you even _care_?"

"Say I let you out," the boy spoke after a minute. "Say I miraculous produced the keys to your freedom and just let you walk out of here. You wouldn't have to worry about this place again, would you? You wouldn't have to _care _about the consequences of my setting you free."

And she realized with a sinking stomach that he was absolutely right. If Rinoa was allowed to leave, she would do so without a backwards glance, walking back into her life with the ability to forget that this had even happened. It would take a while but things would return to normal for her. But this boy would most assuredly be left holding the bag when all things were said and done. And if he was actually caught helping her, there was no doubt in her mind that he would have to suffer for his actions and that left a twisting guilty feeling in her gut at the mere thought of it.

"Then come with me," she offered, knowing that if he left with her he would be just as clean as she was. He wouldn't have to worry about the consequences if he just left this place and these people behind with this one act of kindness. "Just leave this place, leave these guys behind. I can tell that you're not a bad person, your standing here talking to me alone proves that. If you help me out and don't come back, then there's nothing to worry about."

"Where exactly would I go?" The response was quick and sudden, like he had been just waiting for her to finish before he spit it out.

"Anywhere you want to," Rinoa responded, though wondering after the strange question. "You could leave the city, maybe make a name for yourself somewhere else. Start over, have a new life that doesn't involve kidnapping people and holding them for ransom in dark and dingy cells. You could make an honest living, build an honest _life_…"

Her words caught in her throat as she caught sight of those gray eyes narrowing as she continued to speak. Instead of inspiring courage and faith they just seemed to be making him angrier and under that glare she felt like she wanted to just curl up and disappear. Swallowing hard, Rinoa wondered if she'd maybe insulted him in some way but when she went to say something, he broke the thick silence that had threatened to choke the oxygen from her chest. "It's _out _of the question. I'm not going anywhere and neither are you, and that's the last time I'm going to say it."

"But…!" Rinoa protested but found that she didn't have anything to say to that, especially when the words had been spoken in such a cold and matter-of-fact tone of voice that held so much finality. She felt like she had been slapped again and found herself fighting back tears as a result. The word spoken bounced off the walls and echoed back at her in an almost deafening and absolute way.

"Look," he said through a sigh, sounding tired as he looked away. Suddenly she felt like she was able to breathe again as he turned away from her. "The situation's not _completely _hopeless. All you have to do is sit around and wait until your father cooperates and gives them what they want. All the better if it's done sooner rather than later. You'll be back to your picture-perfect life before you know it, and you'll be able to forget that this whole thing even happened."

Rinoa didn't know what was worse, the fact that he was even saying any of this or that he sounded like these words should appease her and make her look on the bright side. Her life was _far _from 'picture-perfect' but that wasn't any of his business. Every family had their issues and just because hers was wealthy and didn't have to worry about money didn't put them above the rest. And how the hell was she expected to forget being kidnapped and held against her will in a dark and creepy cell having to wait for her father to give into their demands when she knew he was the kind of guy who didn't give into ransoms? And how could she even be expected to believe a word that this boy said, this boy whom she'd never even known existed twenty-four hours ago. There was absolutely no guarantee that these kidnappers had her best interests at heart, even if her father cooperated. Hell, they were probably plotting the many ways they could dispose of her body after they killed her for all she knew.

"You know what?" She said suddenly. The anger was back and she was fixing him with a murderous stare as she allowed his words to echo back into her mind. "_Fuck you_."

She caught a shift from behind the bars and, satisfied that she had his full attention, continued to speak, the anger practically oozing from her every orifice. "I don't need your pity. I don't need your assurances. I'm not stupid and not nearly as naïve as you might think I am. I know that the chances of my return to the real world shrink down to almost _nothing _after the first 48 hours. I have seen enough TV to know that it is usually the hostage that has their guts spilling out onto the floor by the end of the exchange. So I'm _sorry _if I don't find any _comfort _in your words of solace. Spare me the 'everything's gonna be fine' bullshit.

"You don't know a damned _thing _about me, so don't presume to assume how my life is," Rinoa continued to said in a calm tone that belayed her rage. "But I can most definitely say different about you. You, who refuses to do anything but sit on his hands and do as he's told. Well you know what? It is your _inactivity_, your refusal to do anything to help me that makes you just as bad as these people who are holding me hostage against my will. It actually makes you even _worse, _because at least these people are doing something!"

Her words rang throughout the cell like a school-bell's blare, echoing back at her with an intensity that she felt. But that all stopped as she saw the arms around the bars retreat back into the shadowy depths. It took her a minute to realize that he was leaving and suddenly she was sorry for yelling at him, for telling him off for not helping her. She would do anything to keep him from leaving, anything to keep from being left alone again.

"No wait!" She shouted as she rushed the bars, but by then she'd lost track of him. Attempting to press her face through the gap she gripped the metal tightly in hands that turned white at the knuckle. "Please don't go! I'm sorry, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean any of it, I swear, please just _come back!_"

The sound of a door closing was her reply, the noise echoing just as loudly as her words had minutes ago. Falling back against the bars she succumbed to her sobs as she realized that she had just chased away the only human contact she'd had for hours. It could've been _days _already for all she knew. And now she was alone, would be alone, until these goons probably came by to finish her off. The boy wasn't coming back, no person in their right minds would return after the way she'd talked to him.

Silence was her only companion as she shed broken tears, as she cried openly in her._  
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_Again, I would like to stress that this story is being written for the 'Where I Belong' August Challenge started by Eternal Tiet (aka Ashbear). For more information, please check out the forum and Community on FFnet, both under the name 'Where I Belong'._


	2. Chapter 2: Time is a Relative Thing

Time was a relative thing.

Rinoa was beginning to learn this lesson the hard way. With no means to track the seconds, the minutes, the _hours_ that past, she had no idea how long she had been trapped already. When she had cried to the point where no more tears would shed and all she could do was hiccup and draw in shaky breaths, she would do was sit there, making the time crawl all the more slowly. Eventually the watching would shift to thinking, her mind churning things over like a laundry load in the dryer only to be distracted as her prison-keepers would arrive with food.

One of her concerns upon pulling herself together somewhat had been about the food. In the numerous movies and television shows that had concerned the subject matter of hostages and their captivity, she had always witnessed the victims being treated more as unwanted pets rather than actual human beings. Their food had been little more than a few scraps here and there, living in poor living conditions and forced to wear the same thing day and out. So far her experience mimicked that of the fictitious experiences of those make-believe characters and as a result she had not been looking forward to meal time.

But it turned out that her mother had been right to tell her that not everything that happened on TV was real. The food, while not exactly five star quality, was at least edible and, so she discovered after waiting a couple of hours, not at all life threatening or vomit inducing. It made sense when she thought about it, because why would these people starve or poison the hostage when they were the real money maker? Never mind her fear that they would not be keeping her around for long.

The food served as a distraction for a good half-hour though only if she ate slowly. Once she was done, the time would return to its snail's crawl pace and she would be left with nothing to do but allow her thoughts to run wild in her mind. Although grateful for the presence of a toilet, Rinoa found herself more than just a little uncomfortable doing her business out in the open, particularly in the presence of a camera. But in the end it had been the simple choice between holding it in and risking an accident or forcing her dignity and pride to the side for comfort. Eventually, the latter won out.

But between mealtime and bodily needs and functions, there was very little else that she could do to occupy her attention. Her backpack was missing, so that meant no homework to be done, no notebooks to doodle on and certainly no cellphone to make impromptu calls to 'mommy' and 'daddy'. So it left her surrounded with a boredom so unbelievably suffocating that she probably would have welcomed it if her ransomers decided to kill her a little early to just to end it.

Probably.

Maybe.

Not likely.

On second thought, scratch that. She wouldn't have welcomed it at all.

In addition to there being no way to track the time, there was no way to track the time of _day_. There were no windows in the cell or anywhere close by that could help her discern whether it was morning or night. In fact, she was starting to panic at not knowing just how long she'd been stuck in this hell-hole already. It could've been days, weeks, or even _months_ since she'd been here and she wouldn't have known. Her parents could either be freaking out and frantically searching for her or have already given up hope of ever finding their daughter alive again. Both thoughts made her even more homesick, wishing that she could be there with them again, to be anywhere but here.

Eventually Rinoa was able to find a means of making the time pass faster. Between eating, sleeping and other distractions she would find herself dozing on and off, only to shake herself of it before resuming the activity or becoming engrossed in any of the aforementioned actions that might draw her attention. It was better than allowing her thoughts to become a jumbled mess of worrying over her parents, wondering if she would ever see them again or if they even knew she had gone missing. She had run away to a friend's house one time when she'd thought her parents were being unreasonable and she had spent almost two days there before returning home to face the music. Neither of them had been very impressed and she'd spent the rest of the week grounded.

No, sleeping or dozing was much more preferable to worrying.

But this time when she woke out of her daze she found that her legs were cramped and stiff from sitting all the time. So she gingerly and carefully rose to her feet while attempting to use the wall for support in order to stretch them out. But as she did this she got the feeling that she was being watched. It should have been nothing new – by this point she had gotten used to the annoying camera with the annoying blinking red light – but somehow she got the sense that this sensation was different. And so she turned to the front of her cell with the intention of telling whatever sicko had decided to grace her with their presence to fuck off and leave her alone to sulk. They owed her that much. But as she turned she was startled to discover that it wasn't some sicko who was watching her after all.

It was the boy.

The _same_ boy from before.

For whatever reason he had come back and Rinoa silently wondered if he was a masochist or something. While she had not actually physically attacked him, her words should have been enough of a reason to steer clear of her. But no, here he was, his arms the only things exposed from the darkness beyond the cell, the same gray eyes simply watching her even as she stared at him in a confused stupor.

His arm shifted slight and she caught the dull glint of light off metal before realize that strapped to his left wrist was a watch. The eyes flicked towards his wrist as though he were inspecting the watch before returning to rest on her. "For a second there, I thought you'd gotten frozen in place. You've been like that for the last two hours."

Rinoa paid his words no mind, her sights fixated on that strap of metal he had just consulted. "You…" she finally said as she fell on hands and knees and crawled towards him if only to get a better look at it. "You have a watch?"

She could tell without actually seeing him that he was confused and she could've slapped herself in the forehead when she realized just how lame she must've sounded. Shaking her head in embarrassment and disgust, she forced herself to speak only when she'd regained her composure. "I'm sorry. It's just… it's so _easy _to lose track of the time and all of my stuff's gone… I'm going totally crazy wondering what time it is and everything, and it's not helping matters any…"

"Do you want it?"

Rinoa stopped talking abruptly and stared at him for a moment. At first she wasn't sure if she'd heard him right and this curiosity transformed itself into disbelief the sincerity of the question, not knowing whether or not he was being serious. His tone was back to the same old bored indifferent one he'd had when they'd first met, and his eyes didn't give anything else away beyond that. She didn't know him well enough to be able to guess whether this was a trick, something to get her hopes up if only to torture her by holding it just out of reach.

Still, she would do absolutely _anything _to know what time it was, hell even what _day _it was or how long she'd been there already. Even if the watch wasn't for keeps, she would at least appreciate the quick glance she could probably sneak before he withdrew it from sight. Regardless of his intentions, trick or no trick, she had to know. So she nodded, fully expecting for him to turn around and mock her for being so damned gullible.

Instead, he pulled both arms back into the darkness and seconds later he brought them out again, this time with the watch in his outstretched hand, the band having been undone from around his wrist. He just held it out in front of him and when she didn't make any move to do anything he gestured it to her, the watch swinging lightly from the momentum. "Take it."

Slowly she closed the distance between them and, almost tentatively, Rinoa took the offering from the youth in front of her. Instead of wrenching it back like she'd expected, he simply allowed the object to fall out of his grasp and into hers before resuming his folded arms stance once again.

As she examined the watch Rinoa realized that it wasn't even really anything special. It was just an analog watch. All of the numbers were in the right spot and it didn't even look all that expensive, looking old and worn from years of use . Yet to her right at that moment the watch was the most beautiful thing anyone had ever given her. The only downfall to it was because it was analog there was no way to tell what the date was or even if it was morning or night.

But she wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth and so she started to strap it to her wrist. Looking up, she realized that the boy was just watching her go about the motions and she suddenly felt awkward and stupid for making the watch into such a big deal. "Are you sure about this?" she couldn't help but ask. It sat too loosely on her wrist, having been designed with a guy in mind. "I mean, won't you get in trouble for giving me this?"

Her thoughts lingered to when they'd first met, how adamant he had seemed at her not looking at the camera or even indicating that she was talking to someone. Surely giving her this watch would send alarm bells to her kidnappers and then where would they be?

But the boy didn't even seem all that concerned and shrugged. "It's just a watch. It's not a big deal. And if they make a big fuss I'll just tell them I lost it. They'll give me another one, they won't ask much else than that. There'll only be trouble if you let them know you have it."

Staring at her wrist Rinoa couldn't help but feel like an idiot. It would've been much smarter of her to just stuff it in one of her pockets and then consult it whenever she needed to. Undoing the clasp and trying to be discrete as she went about the action, Rinoa was surprised when he kept speaking. "It's been about a day and a half now, just in case you were wondering."

Blinking stupidly, the information soon sunk in and she realized what he was talking about. Taking a look at the watch she now held in her hand, she realized that the little hand was closer to the 2 and the big hand was somewhere near the 12. Being used to having a digital watch - which was sadly also in her backpack – it took her a minute to figure out how to read the stupid thing but eventually she was able to. "It's… after 2…"

A slight shift came from the shadows and she took it as a nod, but frowned as she realized she had no idea what time of day it was. But her visitor seemed to take pity on her and what he said next gave her the answer she was looking for. "A.M., not P.M."

Rinoa nodded unconsciously to herself as she put the watch away, deciding that she might not ever get used to being unable to tell morning from night anymore. At least not without a window where the light could be an indication. But then a suddenly thought occurred to her – the thought that should have been foremost in her mind – and in a desperate bid to avoid the silence she spoke. "Why're you here?"

He shrugged again. "I couldn't sleep, and there's not much else to do at this time of…"

"No," she said, purposely cutting him off before he could continue. He had misunderstood what she had been asking, but she had no one to blame for herself for that one. "I mean, _why _are you here? After the way I talked to you and the things I said. I wouldn't have blamed you for deciding to keep your distance after I screamed at you, I know I would have."

"I've heard worse," he said, seemingly shrugging it off. His tone seemed to suggest she'd just asked him the most silly and pointless question he'd ever heard. Biting her lip at the silent insinuation, Rinoa wasn't entirely sure she liked it. "I've been _called _worse, in fact. I don't think an angry and homesick girl's going to be enough to keep me from going wherever I please."

"You're a glutton for punishment then," Rinoa remarked almost lightly and found that she was surprised at having conjured the emotion so easily, especially giving her situation. She supposed it was the knowledge of having someone else to talk to that was putting her at ease and even if it only lasted for a little while she was more than happy to take advantage. It was better than being left with the loneliness her thoughts brought her.

"Why?" He asked, as if she hadn't just dropped into her thoughts. "You've got more things to yell at me about?"

Rinoa shook her head. "Nah, I think I'm pretty much yelled out. At least for now, anyway. You're safe." Not entirely sure if she should be acting so casual with this boy she'd never met before she cleared her throat awkwardly and decided that it would probably be better not to think about it. "So you said there's not much for you to do around here. There's no one else you can talk to? Not that I don't enjoy your company, I mean it's a great distraction to where I am, but even the goons keeping me here might be able to provide you with some morsel of entertainment. There's gotta be _someone _still awake at this time of night. They wouldn't want to risk their _precious _hostage escaping after all, would they?"

Her thoughts turned dark at the mere thought of them but she forced them away, wondering if she might be able to use these conversations to her advantage. If anything, he might give something away about her surroundings, something she could utilize to get someone to help her escape. The boy paid no attention to her mental musings but he didn't answer right away either. Eventually he did, speaking slowly as though unsure of how to phrase his response. "Unless there's someone being held here, there's usually no one my age around. These guys aren't exactly what you would call easy to relate to."

Rinoa blinked at that. She had known he was young but she hadn't realized he was the only one there. Her initial guess of his age had him in his teens but with the way he held himself he acted so much older than that. To realize her original guess had been right was a little startling though in hindsight it wasn't that surprising. The shadows kept her from seeing him properly, so she couldn't accurately tell how old he was. "So everyone else is older than you?" She asked, despite knowing the answer.

She expected some barbed quip about her stating the obvious. Instead she noticed another shift from the shadows and she could only assume it was a nod of agreement. "So… how old _are _you exactly?"

There was another short pause before his answer, something Rinoa took to be a sign of hesitation. "Sixteen."

"So we're the same age then," Rinoa blurted out before realizing what it was she was saying. She caught him staring at her but she couldn't tell if this declaration surprised him or not. She just shrugged in response, deciding that it didn't matter. "I just turned sixteen a few days ago, actually."

And oh what a day it had been. Very few of her friends had actually been in town to celebrate it with her. Due to the fact that spring break was coming up very soon, her teachers had decided to bore their students with revision and study review that would lead to loads of homework to work on during the break. Many of the students were taking advantage of not learning anything new before the break and had pestered their parents into allowing them to take a holiday and having their teachers email them the coursework to do later. Rinoa had found it horrifyingly unfair because her parents had decided that because her grades were barely on par that she should be forced to attend classes with the handful of students who were doing the same before the break.

Now if they'd just taken her to Timber as she'd originally asked them to, maybe she wouldn't have been kidnapped and brought here in the first place.

"Happy Birthday."

The flat tone of voice broke her out of her thoughts and she couldn't help the hurt creep up from the lack of enthusiasm in the otherwise thoughtful praising. Rinoa forced herself to calm down, resolute that she would keep her cool and not give these goons the satisfaction of seeing her cry a second time. The boy across from her made another motion from beyond the shadows and spoke up. "Sorry. That didn't quite come out the way I'd intended it to."

Rinoa relaxed at that, realizing that it had just been a bad delivery rather than a mean-spirited ploy and she smiled at that as she muttered a thank you in response. "Hey," she said suddenly as an idea hit her. "Do you wanna come sit with me in here?"

He stared at her openly and Rinoa hoped that he didn't think too much of it. If she could get him to just open the door, then she could figure out how to get away from this miserable place on her own. She would worry about not getting lost later but all she needed to do was get out of the cell first. She hoped that he would assume she was asking just because she was lonely rather than because she had a plan up her sleeve and she couldn't help but feel like a heel for deceiving him this way. He didn't have to come and talk to her at all, and yet here he was. But if he wasn't going to help her then that was on him. She would just ensure that he at least stayed out of the way, as cold as that might sound.

But then he gestured from behind the shadows. "Nice try. I know what'll happen the moment that door gets opened. You'll run as far away from this place as you can get and that's _if _you don't get lost trying to leave. I've seen it happen, it's not pretty. And even if I wanted to let you out, I still don't have the keys. In fact…" he let out through a sigh. "I'm not really supposed to be down here in the first place."

"I kind of gathered that," Rinoa said through a sigh of her own. "But if you're not supposed to be coming down to see me, then why do you? Why take the risk?"

He shrugged again and Rinoa realized for the first time that the action seemed to give away an awkwardness that he must have. She wasn't sure if it was due to the fact that he had no one else to relate to thus no one to talk to, but she noticed that it was there all the same. "Maybe I'm a little lonely too."

He suddenly shook his head before one of his hands disappeared into the darkness only to return seconds later. He made a noise in the back of his throat that sounded like he was clearing it. "But I really should go now. I have to get up early in the morning." Raising his hand in what could be assumed to be a wave, his arms disappeared into the darkness as he prepared to take his leave.

"Wait!" Rinoa said suddenly and she was surprised that she heard no shift of movement. But she wasn't entirely sure that he had stayed either and waited for a sign that would tell her either way. Then there was the tell-tale clearing of the throat that signalled that he had stopped to hear her out. "At least tell me your name."

The eyes in the darkness blinked. Twice. She could tell that her request had thrown him for a loop, particularly when those eyes looked away, causing her to wonder what was wrong. "Look, you said it yourself. The camera can't hear us, and as long as we're careful they won't know I'm talking to you. And it's not like I'm going to rat you out to these goons, they wouldn't let me leave even if I wanted to. But… you're the only one who takes the time to talk to me, and I'd like to be able to give a name to a face, even if it is just for my own benefit. Honestly, I can't just keep referring to you as 'you' all the time… that just gets to be insensitive and…"

"No…." he said suddenly in a small voice, cutting her off abruptly. Rinoa paused, wondering if maybe she had said something again, but held her breath as she waited for him to finish. "It's… it's not about that. I'm… not worried about _that_."

"Then what?" She asked, almost tentatively.

He looked back at her and she almost gasped at the sincerity she caught in his eyes. It caused the air of indifference to be washed away, making him look almost sad. "I've… never been asked that before. From…" he cleared his throat awkwardly and instantly she knew who he was talking about. Of all the hostages he had visited in the past, not one of them had asked him that question. She was the first.

He turned to look away and she couldn't help but feel sorry for him, knowing that no one not even the people in her predicament had given him a second glance. It almost made her feel bad for her earlier attempt and obviously he seemed embarrassed about it because he'd looked away and not said anything as a result. It was kind of adorable the way he refused to meet her gaze now, but she refused to voice the thought because she had a feeling she might scare him off for good if she did. "Well," she said at great length. "My name's Rinoa. Just in case you didn't already know."

She chuckled awkwardly, knowing that she sounded incredibly dumb and yet she didn't really care. She just didn't want him to feel awkward about something like this. She couldn't exactly fault him for it though. Given what he'd told her thus far, he was seen as unimportant in the grand scheme. Even more so than the prisoners they kept here.

"I didn't… actually," he admitted. Rinoa was caught off guard by this turn of events and realized that he might not be near as privy to the circumstances that happened here as she originally thought. Curious, she wondered just how much he did know of the kidnappings before figuring that he probably wouldn't know too much. He might have just connected the dots, which was why he knew that it was her father these people were targeting and that she was just a leverage piece.

"But thank you," he continued, regardless of her thoughts.

"So…" Rinoa prompted when he fell silent. "What's _your _name?"

He looked back up at her almost hesitantly, and it was nearly a minute later when he finally answered her, his voice barely above a whisper. "It's Squall."

She hadn't known what to expect but the name kind of threw her. It was unique and uncommon. She had never heard of anyone naming their kid after a storm over the ocean, but she smiled all the same. "It's a nice name. I like it."

Squall cleared his throat awkwardly as Rinoa stifled a giggle at his expense. It seemed all these questions and compliments were something uncommon to him. "Well then, I'll let you go now. Goodnight Squall. And, thank you for keeping me company."

Seemingly at a loss for words, Squall just made a grunting noise and a half-assed effort to wave before he finally turned and left her alone. Even though his leaving her made her feel awful, she no longer felt alone. And maybe, just maybe, she might see him again, should he decide to take another risk on her.

And Rinoa was hoping he thought she might be worth it.


	3. Chapter 3: Taken for Granted

Honestly she didn't know what to think now.

When she'd first been taken and brought to this awful place Rinoa had thought she would die alone and forgotten by her kidnappers, left to rot in the cell without any kind of human contact with no means of knowing just how long she'd been missing or if anyone was even searching for her. But it was after the night she officially met Squall that her outlook changed, if only slightly. Of course she still believed that she would eventually be left behind to rot, but now she didn't feel so alone. The time still crawled, sometimes slowly as she would keep checking the watch she kept hidden every so often, but other times she couldn't believe how quickly it seemed to pass. The latter usually happened whenever Squall came by to visit.

And it was a lot more often than she'd initially imagined. Almost every night around midnight he would come by, sometimes just to keep her company or other times to provide a distraction to her predicament. He'd not once stepped inside the cell and he usually had to leave after a little while but Rinoa found herself depending on these visits, like a life-line to whatever sanity she had remaining.

Most of the time they would start out their time together just talking about things, usually random events that had happened in their lives. He seemed to be taking great care not bring up subject matter that could eventually steer the topic to her predicament in this place, let alone remind her of why she was here. She could tell this much just from the way he would not-so-casually attempt to change the subject whenever he said certain words or asked certain questions. She felt horribly boring and mundane just from the things she said because a lot of them were horribly mundane and boring things that weren't normally worth mentioning at all. But he appeared to enjoy hearing about them. It wasn't just her imagination either, because whenever she attempted to change the subject to something at that was at least a little interesting he would urge her to continue with the original thought. It was like everything she thought was boring seemed to interest him and she couldn't help but wonder if he really was as sheltered as he seemed to let on.

But it wasn't just about here. Even though he didn't talk a lot about himself (or seemingly chose not to anyway) she realized she was beginning to learn a thing or two about her new companion. They probably weren't all that important in the grand scheme of things but as he found the mundane things about her interesting, the same could be said about the reverse.

The first thing she'd learned was that he was homeschooled. His classroom was one of the spare rooms within this very building and his teachers were the very people who organized these kidnappings or lived in this place. He'd never actually been to a school building before nor had he interacted with any students who might be studying the same material. It at least explained why he seemed so awkward around her, why he acted like every little thing he said was wrong and why it always took some time for her to convince him otherwise. Rinoa had always thought it would be amazing to be able to sleep in and stay in her pyjamas all day long, never having to venture very far in order to get to class (and thus not be yelled at for constantly being late). She had thought it would be a luxury to just get up and raid the fridge whenever she got hungry, and not get called out in front of the rest of her peers for sneaking a bite from her sandwich because she'd skipped out on breakfast to avoid the aforementioned tardy lecture. But she'd been surprised to find that he was completely and utterly unimpressed by all of these things and more, but in retrospect she realized she'd sacrifice all of the added perks of schooling at home if it meant she got to hang out with her friends by making the trip to the actual school building every day.

She was reminded constantly that he was just another teenage boy just by how much he complained about how much homework he had to do or how obnoxiously annoying his tutors were when they went on about their lectures. The worst part was that if he chose to skip a class because it was either too boring or he couldn't be bothered to show up, his tutors would find him and drag his ass back, more often than not holding him back to make up the time. This was the aspect of homeschooling that appealed to Rinoa the least, because she was known to skip a class or two in the spur of the moment.

She didn't know how Squall managed to do it every day, let alone for as long as he had. That was another thing she had picked up on during their talks: Squall had been living in this place for a very, _very _long time, maybe for as long as he could remember. Rinoa assumed his parents were members of this group and she figured they'd have to be really strong believers in the cause for them all to just live in this place without any contact to the outside world. From the way he talked about this place, Rinoa doubted very much that he would have stuck it out for as long as he had if he didn't have family around to make it worth it. He'd never mentioned them, but she got the feeling that he was the kind of guy who was very family orientated. She hadn't wanted to pry so she'd never gotten to confirm her suspicions.

According to Squall when she'd asked him recently, she'd been in this cell for at least a week, maybe a couple days longer. She depended mostly on Squall's nightly visits to discern morning from night and it was taking a while to get used to this method of time-telling, but what amazed her more than her growing accuracy in guessing the date was the fact that she was even still alive. She'd assumed that after a couple of days these goons would show up, kill her and send her body on its merry way to be discovered from some guy who had nothing better to do than to fish around at the quarry for some garbage. Again she was forced to remind herself that not everything shown on TV was real though truth to tell most of her assumption was based on the 48 hour rule regarding hostages, that any hope of recovering a missing person alive hit rock bottom once that second day had past.

Just because it made it harder for people to be found after that window had been explored didn't mean it didn't actually happen. There were cases in the news where people had been found even years after the fact, living new lives under new names. It didn't necessarily mean she'd be dead after 48 hours, just that it would make her harder to find. Still, if these guys were as well-versed in their jobs as she thought they were, it meant it might take years for them to find her corpse. Maybe even longer to actually identify her.

Rinoa shook her head in an attempt to remove those dark thoughts from her mind. It would only happen to her if she refused to stay positive and she refused to be the witless bystander in her own kidnapping, dammit. Looking up from her musings, she turned her attention to the bars and, sure enough, those arms were wrapped around the metal again. Her visitor had arrived.

With a frustrated sigh that lacked any actual animosity, Rinoa turned to face him properly. "I'm _never _going to catch you just showing up, am I?"

"Not if you keep dazing out like that," he responded in kind with a verbal shrug. "But you're getting better at noticing when I am here. Didn't take you as long this time."

"_Whatever_," Rinoa snorted in dismissal. "And you're sounding a lot more cheerful tonight. Did you have a good day?"

"No, not really, but I'd rather not get into it," Squall said with another shrug. "Same shit, different day, right?"

"I wouldn't know," Rinoa said with a sigh.

"So how are you doing?"

Rinoa fixed him with a look at the utterly stupid question. "The same way I am _every_ night, Pinky," she remarked mockingly before she rolled her eyes. When she realized Squall was not commenting and was instead just watching her, the raven-haired girl shook her head. "It's a line out of an old TV show I used to watch when I was a kid. Never-mind, it's stupid."

"Sounds like a remarkably enticing show."

"Ha-ha, it was actually pretty dumb but it did its job occupying an eight year old, that's for sure." She ran a hand through her hair as she spoke and grimaced at the greasy feel of her fingers when she'd completed the act. "I'm still majorly homesick. I still just want to see my family again, and I'm still royally furious that they installed a camera in the cell just to watch my every waking move." She glared at the offending object, recalling each and every awkward moment that had led to her using the toilet. "And I'm in _desperate _need of a shower. I mean, my hair has never been so greasy and…" she sniffed at her arm-pits tentatively before holding back a gag. "I smell like a guy who just wrestled for a football in the mud. How degrading is that?"

"You didn't wash up in the sink?"

At first Rinoa considered refusing to even answer such a stupid question, but realizing that guys and girls were practically from different planets, she decided that maybe it was better to respond after all. "In case you haven't noticed lately, Squall, I'm a _girl_. And girls tend to feel more comfortable being _clean_ than covered in grime and mud. That's why we take so long in the bathroom when we're getting ready to go somewhere."

The poor guy was clearly confused if his eyes were any indication of this but Rinoa continued on regardless. "Unlike guys, _girls_ can't just get away with 'washing up in the sink', _especially _when there's a camera involved. Even if I turn my back, I just know some jackass is probably getting off watching my unintentional and _totally _without-permission show. And even if I did break down and decide I'm desperate enough to use the sink, there's no shampoo or conditioner for my hair, so it makes the job a little pointless. The bar of soap makes my hands feel dry as paint-chips, and without any lotion to actually sooth them my skin starts to peel, not a comfortable sensation. And I'd probably _freeze _to death even if I had all of those things because there's nothing but a crusty blanket that I _sleep _with to dry myself off properly. So _no_, I did not wash up in the sink because in the long run it wouldn't be doing me any favours."

Squall did not respond to her tirade and she figured it was probably for the best if he said nothing at all. Guys might feel like they could just whip it out without a problem, but girls were more modest and private creatures. At least, most of them were. But all the same her concerns were correct. She supposed the goons who'd brought her here hadn't thought much in the way of comfort, just focusing on keeping her alive long enough to make the deal with her father. But she noticed, when she did turn to look at her visitor once again, that his gaze was far away, as though he were thinking. At first she felt indignant that he hadn't even been listening to her rant, but she forced herself to calm down as she reminded herself that this was not an uncommon occurrence.

Another thing she had learned about her companion was that he tended to practically _live _inside his own head and would usually venture within from time to time, just thinking on things. The frequency of his visits usually depended on whether or not either of them was talking. Rinoa knew that if she had been him she would have lost her mind and her sanity a very long time ago and wondered how he'd managed to hang onto his for so long.

But then his arms retracted back into the darkness and she couldn't stop the alarm from rising up at the sudden disappearance. "Wait, what're you doing?" She asked as her stomach coiled tightly in her stomach from the dread that filled her.

"I'll be right back, I promise," Squall said and her heart sank as he turned to walk away.

"NO!" Rinoa exclaimed as she rushed towards the bars. "No! Don't leave me here all by myself!"

But her pleas went unnoticed and she fell to her knees in despair, left alone to wonder if she'd somehow managed to do something wrong. Squall usually didn't leave like that, not since that first night, especially not without some kind of goodbye gesture or explanation of where he was heading. Rinoa was terrified that he might not come back at all, despite his promise. Crying openly at the thought, she didn't bother to stop the torrent of tears that slid down her cheeks not knowing at all why this was bothering her near as much when he'd always had to leave at the end of the night anyway. She blamed it on the abruptness of it all. Perhaps she had taken it for granted that he always left with a fond 'Good Night'.

Curled in a ball, crying and shaking, she had no idea how much time had passed and did not even bother to consult to watch she had access to. But then she suddenly heard the sound of footfalls as they drew in closer. Realizing she hadn't even heard the door open and close, Rinoa jumped up so that she was sitting, unsure of what she should possibly expect. She didn't dare call out, because she knew somehow she might implicate Squall and if this was not him, the boy might get into some serious trouble because of her lapse.

Tentatively she looked up for a sign of just who was approaching her and when she recognized those eyes approaching she let out the breath she had been holding. Suddenly embarrassed at her behaviour, she quickly wiped at her eyes and felt almost foolish at how badly she had over-reacted. She saw the shift as he knelt down beside the bars, his eyes betraying his bewilderment at her state. No doubt he had heard her crying as he'd approached. "Are you okay?"

Rinoa was a horrible liar. Many people had told her without hesitation that her poker-face was terrible and they could read her like an open book. She knew it was true as well, because she was just far too emotionally to keep her feelings beneath the surface. Whether she was angry, hurt, sad or happy, everyone could tell just by taking one good look at her. If she had been the one bathed in shadows instead of him she might have had a better chance if she could keep her voice from trembling.

So instead of attempting to salvage whatever dignity she might have left by lying, she decided it was better if she just let it all out into the open. "You just up and _left _me all alone," she said as she attempted to keep the accusation from her voice. She knew she'd failed miserably when she saw him flinch and his eyes look away almost guiltily as a result. "And you did it all _without _warning or any concern for my feelings in the matter. I thought you weren't coming back. I thought I'd said something horrible just now, something that offended you and I'm _tired _of having to watch my words and walk along eggshells just to avoid having to face the consequences!"

And at that she collapsed into fitful sobs that she tried to hold back at bay, making her shudder and hiccup as a result. She wiped at eyes that were holding back fresh tears and struggled to calm down before the well broke again. But before she could even say that she was being sensitive because of her situation and that she realized how silly she had reacted, he was speaking, his voice betraying his regret and his guilt.

"I'm sorry," he said and she could tell that he meant it. She understood that vindictiveness had not been a part of his reasoning but it was the suddenness of leaving her behind that had left her hurt and afraid. "I'm… really, really sorry. You're absolutely right to be angry with me. I shouldn't have just left like that, at least not without telling you what I was doing. But I didn't want to get your hopes up."

"What do you mean?" Rinoa asked tentatively, surprised by this strange revelation. He had left her alone because he didn't want to get her hopes up? "Wait… do you mean that I'm going home?"

"Sorry but no," he said and her stomach sank at the news, her hopes having been brought up if only to crash back down with disappointment. But before she could even express her disappointment or even her curiosity, she saw that he was fiddling with something out of view. It took her a second to realize he had not returned empty handed and curiosity pushed away the crestfallen feeling as she simply watched and waited to see what it was.

Once he'd finished gathering whatever it was, he turned back to face her. Suddenly a light brown fluffy thing was being pushed through the bars and Rinoa couldn't help but extend her arms to catch the object. Once it was fully through the gap he had relinquished his hold and simply watched as she examined it, recognizing the feel of the towel she now held in both hands. She also realized that the towel was heavy, filled with something inside and when she unravelled the object she could only stare stupidly at the bottles that were lying snuggly atop the fabric. Her mind refused to put two and two together.

Squall seemed to be happy enough to do that for her though. "There's the towel obviously. It's the longest one I was able to find, along with a bottle of soap and shampoo. That soap shouldn't dry out your skin so much, but I'm not exactly an expert on which ones are supposed to prevent that so let me know if I somehow managed to mess that up. I… couldn't exactly grab anything else, not on such short notice and not without being caught and looking suspicious, which is why it took me so long."

He bowed his head slightly – she could tell by the sudden downturn gazed as he looked back up at her. "I know it's not much and it's probably not at all what you're used to, but you might feel a lot better given the circumstances."

"At least I'll be clean," Rinoa said but she felt like she was only going through the motions so great was her shock. Here she'd been crying to herself in worry that she'd just offended the only person who cared enough to come talk to her, and all the while he'd been trying to make her unwanted stay at least moderately tolerable. She still wanted to go home more than anything in the world, but in the end she was humbled and even grateful for the sentiment. "Thank you," she said, and she meant it. If she could have hugged him she most definitely would have, though she was pretty sure it might actually scare him away.

Squall nodded in kind, his eyes telling her that he was happy she liked this surprise but then he suddenly stood up and that feeling of being alone again gripped her until she heard a shuffling that indicated that he was still there. "Um… what exactly are you doing?"

"The camera won't give you much in the way of privacy, but it's the least I can do to at least try," Squall explained and she realized that he had turned his back on her so that he wasn't facing her. "Go ahead and wash up. I won't peek, I promise."

Rinoa looked back down at the contents she held in her hands before abruptly realizing that in her shock she'd completely forgotten about her need for a shower. She looked up almost hesitantly at the camera knowing that some goon was watching her from afar, but the pampered side of her said 'screw it' and made her decision up for her. Turning her gaze away from the camera was difficult but she managed it and, using the towel as a shield, she started undressing underneath it, being careful not to allow the fabric to slip off her shoulders and expose her back. This was going to be difficult when she was actually washing but she'd rather fight with the towel than give the goons – wherever they were – a peep show.

Just as she was finishing unbuttoning her shirt though, she was startled when Squall suddenly spoke up again. "Rinoa?"

"Yeah?" Rinoa asked back, stopping her movements in case he were to look back almost reflexively. Sure enough, there was no sound of movement from him and when she looked up she couldn't see his eyes at all. It told her that he most definitely was not looking.

"Please don't worry about watching what you say around me," he said and for a minute she didn't know what he was talking about. Her thoughts were pulled to a particular phrase, one that included 'eggshells' and she suddenly understood. "Whatever it is, I can take it."

"You won't leave me alone?" Rinoa asked slowly. She wasn't entirely convinced that she could believe that. "Like you did that first night?"

"You were angry," was his response. It sounded like a verbal shrug. "I thought you _wanted_ to be alone."

"I _was _angry. But you were the first person I was actually able to talk to. Why would I want to be alone in a place like this?"

"That's a… good point." He sighed lightly. He did that a lot. "But I wouldn't just leave you alone in here indefinitely. Just… don't worry about hurting my feelings, okay? Talk to me like you would anyone else."

"Okay," Rinoa said at great length. She suddenly thought of something and it caused her to smile almost cheekily as she spoke. "So… you might not _see_ what I'm doing, but hearing what I'm doing can provide a lot of imagination for a guy, don't you think?"

There was a sudden bang and a curse from beyond the cell and she realized in his shock he'd accidentally hit his head against one of the bars. She could make out the sight of his hands as they cradled the very back of his head before they disappeared, but from the outline of his body she could plainly see how his elbows stuck out on either side as his hands were pressed firmly against his ears.

Snickering at his expense, Rinoa turned her attention to the task at hand as she pulled the towel over herself and continued the process of getting undressed. The camera might have been rude enough to stare, but the illusion of privacy was at least something to be grateful for.

* * *

_Just in case anyone is curious about why there are so many updates in one day, I'd just like to say that I've already finished writing the story (YAY! Made it in time for the deadline! Woo-hoo!). Unfortunately I wrote it in all as a one-shot and clearly because the thought of a one-shot being 61 pages and 30k+ words is intimidating at best I'm attempting to break the story up into smaller chapters for everyone to enjoy. That also means going through each of the chapters and making sure I'm cutting it off cleanly and nicely so that it's not awkward, as well as editing each chapter before posting it. Somehow I kinda think this story will end up being even longer by the time I've finished posting it._

_Also for those of you who are wondering where the angst is, the story starts to get a little heavy next chapter. I tried not to lay it on thick but what with the plot and all... anyways, hope you guys enjoyed the chapter. _


	4. Chapter 4: Price Caused by Loneliness

By the time she was finished bathing, she felt much better than she had before. Dirt no longer clung beneath her fingernails and her hair no longer just hung there like a thin dead thing. Her hair wasn't exactly dry but it no longer felt heavy despite the water that still stuck within the dark locks. She had towelled off as best she could but it would still take some time to air-dry. What she really needed was a blow-dryer but she thought she might be pressing her luck if she asked for one. Besides, there was no guarantee that there was anywhere she'd have a place to plug it in anyway.

She didn't know what was going to happen next but really she should have been able to guess. Squall retrieved the two bottles and the towel and explained that if they were gone for too long people might suspect they had a thief on their hands. He did promise to bring them with him as often as he could manage and rebuffed her concerns over the amount missing in each of the bottles. No one would notice if they were careful with the amount and even if they did they would just assume that someone was borrowing shampoo. It was something so trivial that they wouldn't bring it up more than once or twice.

They had sat there and talked for a little while after that before he'd had to leave, though admittedly he had done so later than usual. He had already explained to her that, like regular schools, he only had lessons during the week and weekends were the only time he had to sleep in so this occurrence didn't surprise her. In fact, it just meant that he might be able to sneak away and visit a little earlier than normal, and she took it as a good thing for everyone concerned.

A week and a half later, Rinoa sat facing the bars of her cell as she allowed her mind to wander while she waited for her visitor. Since that first night she'd been able to bathe once more and she was looking forward to being able to do so again tonight. Squall had promised to smuggle her some conditioner since her hair was beginning to frizz. It probably wouldn't have bothered her so much if she didn't get little sparks that ran up her fingers whenever she touched the sink or the toilet (though if she were being honest she would admit that it probably wouldn't have been by much).

Her thoughts strayed to her family, much like they always did when she was alone. Currently she was wondering what they were up to at that very moment. She didn't doubt, judging from the time, that they were sitting down to dinner and suddenly she found herself wishing to be at the same table as them, being pestered into conversation when normally she would have liked nothing more than to eat while watching television. Her father was kind of old fashioned like that. He'd always believed that dinner was a time for a family to come together and talk as they ate. They would argue about it but he would always win and she would find herself sulking as she picked at her food, protesting that none of her friends' family had to sit around the table and eat as a family.

When the thoughts started to become almost painful to even think about it, Rinoa forced her mind to stop altogether and looked up from her musings. As wonderful as Squall had been with her, there was just no comparing it to being around family and she missed them immensely. Hell, she would give up showering for a whole year if it meant she could see them again, even if it was only for a few minutes. Even talking to them over the phone would be enough. Shaking herself from these thoughts, Rinoa brought out the watch that she stuffed in one of her pockets and when she checked the time she looked back up at the bars in confusion, noting that there was no one there.

She blinked stupidly as she consulted her watch again though she still found the damn thing telling her that it was half an hour passed 12. She didn't think she'd gotten the time of day wrong because she knew it had to have been a full out day since the last time she'd seen him. So that had to mean it was after midnight.

So then where was he?

Especially knowing that he was like a cat the way he would sneak in and just wait for her to notice him, Rinoa frowned thoughtfully at the unusual situation that had been presented to her. It wasn't like him to be late at all and suddenly she started to feel the panic rise as she couldn't help but think that someone had caught him lifting shampoo bottles. Or it could be the additional conditioner that set someone off. Maybe the reason he hadn't shown up was because he'd been caught and he was being punished right now while she sat there waiting for him.

After a couple of seconds, Rinoa forced her mind to stop walking down that road. She didn't know exactly what was going on and while that alone was enough to scare her she also understood that human beings were not perfect and that it was entirely possible that he really was late this time. He was attempting to steal an extra bottle, so technically that meant he would have to change up the way he went about it. The first night had taken him about thirty minutes to collect everything and while he had gotten much better she didn't know what the circumstances were that night.

Time stretched on as she continued to wait and soon she found herself lost in her thoughts again while she stared out at the bars without actually seeing them. But after some time had passed and her thoughts lurked into waters better left uncharted, Rinoa shook herself back into reality. Blinking out of the daze she had fallen into she looked back up at the bars, still finding that no one had arrived in the time she had zoned out. Curious, she brought out the watch again, finding that it was now almost 2.

_Now _she was beginning to worry.

Pacing back and forth across the cell, Rinoa wondered what the hell was taking so long. Her thoughts went back to her earlier worries and she found herself having doubts over her earlier reassurances. Being late was one thing, but an hour and a half was really pushing the realm of possibilities in her mind. Maybe he really _had_ gotten caught after all. Maybe someone had caught him riffling through their things and they were currently working on him to find out where he was taking them and why he was even stealing them in the first place. Especially knowing that he had to have had his own hygienic products. He didn't smell bad so he had to have soap to shower with at the very least.

She started to bite her nails at the thought. If something happened to him because he was just trying to be nice to her and make her stay here somewhat more pleasant, then she would never forgive herself. She wasn't solely concerned with his safety however; she was concerned with her sanity as well. If anything happened to him not only would she feel immense guilt but her only lifeline to her sanity would snap and she didn't even know what she would do then.

After a few minutes of useless pacing she forced herself to stop with a heavy heart, knowing as her stomach sank to as low as it could possibly go that Squall simply was not coming, whatever the reason. A promise broken, even if it had not been his intention to do so, rendered her stuck all on her own. She wasn't even really angry that she couldn't bathe tonight. It had been the companionship she had craved and she would rather wade through the muck if it meant seeing one friendly face each night.

So it was with a heavy sigh that she crawled onto the cot and pulled the thin blanket over herself, up as far as her chin, and decided to call it a night. She'd find out what happened the next time she saw him.

_If_ she ever saw him again.

Banishing the thought, Rinoa closed her eyes and begged for instant sleep so she wouldn't have to think anymore. She had no idea how long it lasted but she was suddenly jarred awake when she heard a noise. Sitting up with the speed equivalent to that of a rigid board being sprung up, Rinoa looked around and scowled darkly as she realized that one troublesome dim light bulb was out. It seemed strange that the hateful light was not plaguing her and she wondered tentatively if the goons turned it off to conserve energy when she was asleep. As her eyes started to adjust, she looked around her cell for any indication of what caused the sound.

But she couldn't see anything that could have caused it, so she slowly sank back down into the uncomfortable cot and rolled onto her side before closing her eyes in an attempt to go back to sleep. But she opened them up after waiting a few seconds because something inside was telling her that there was still something or someone nearby. She'd always had that feeling whenever someone was watching her sleep, which usually had the effect of making her fully awake and alert whenever it happened. Usually it was only one of her parents standing outside her bedroom door as they checked in on her and only when she was much younger. The only other time she could recall it happening was when she'd been away to camp. The counsellors assigned to each group had to take shifts checking up on the campers to ensure that no one was breaking curfew or sneaking out onto the grounds at night. Rinoa had always been woken up by their very presence, which had resulted in the girl having had very little sleep come the morning.

While it didn't happen near as often, it always unnerved her when it did happen, especially now when she knew it could be anyone.

Her eyes had adjusted enough to the dark that she could make out images and shadows beyond the cell, but there was one in particular that looked like it could be a person. They weren't locked in a cell like she was, which drew her curiosity enough for her to slowly crawl off the cot in order to investigate their presence. Making sure to walk lightly on tip-toes to keep from making a sound she closed the distance between the cot and the cell, only to realize that she recognized the figure. She frowned thoughtfully as she wondered just how long he'd been sitting there or even why he was there in the first place, given the time of night.

That was when she realized she had no idea what time it was either and as a result she consulted the watch. It took a couple of seconds to angle the watch in a way she could read it in the dark, but she realized she had only been asleep for about an hour. Looking up she realized that was even stranger because he usually left her by this time of night, usually with complaints about tutoring.

Knowing that she was always the one to be caught off guard during his visits, Rinoa found herself amazed that while she was sitting within touching distance he hadn't even offered her a backwards glance. Pursing her lips together curiously, she found that she had no idea what to do next. He was being so quiet that it was possible he had fallen asleep like that but then she caught a slight hitch of breath that told her otherwise. After hearing the noise a couple more times she realized with astounding confusion that it was actually hitching breaths she was hearing.

At first she thought he was finding it difficult to breath but his posture seemed to tell her otherwise. He was hunched forward instead of neck back in a struggle to draw breath. But then there was really only one other explanation for the sounds. He was crying.

Not really knowing what else she could do Rinoa crouched down behind him, shifting her weight so that she was balanced on the balls of her feet. Surprised that the shift hadn't so much as registered to him she reached out a hand in order to tap him tentatively on the shoulder to make him aware of her presence. But when her fingertips barely brushed against his shoulder, the unexpected happened. Her hand was suddenly flung away and into the bars as though she'd just burned him and she cursed as the pain flew up to her elbow. Withdrawing her arm, she cradled her injured hand almost protectively into her chest not knowing what had provoked the action. She heard scuffing as the body in front of her moved out of her immediate line of sight, but the sound was overshadowed by the dull ringing echo from her hand hitting the metal as well as his quickened intakes of breath.

Nothing was said immediately between the pair for what felt like a long time. After a minute or so of flexing her fingers, Rinoa let out a relieved sigh at knowing that she could still move them before turning her attention towards the intruder. "Why the hell did you do _that _for?" She hissed in a voice barely above a whisper. She didn't know why she suddenly felt the need to whisper because no one could actually hear her through the camera, but she did so all the same.

"I'm sorry." The response was automatic and it washed away the sudden rush of indignation she felt at being attacked. More importantly was the slight waver in a voice that was normally so steady, though usually still filled with hesitation. "You just startled me. I didn't think you'd be awake now."

She frowned thoughtfully as she made a mental note not to try and surprise him like that again as she watched Squall in concern. He had always seemed so unsure before but right now it was like he was trying to hold something back, like something had unnerved him and he was still trying to get over it. She wondered if it had anything to do with what she assumed to have been him crying before, but whatever it was had nothing to do her sudden scare. Somehow physical contact had something to do with it and she looked back down at her injured hand tentatively.

"Wait…" he said after a moment, oblivious to her thoughts as she stared at him critically. It was easy to do in the dark when they could barely see one another at all. "What're you doing awake? I thought you were asleep."

"Well I _was,_" Rinoa said carefully, still trying to keep her voice down despite no real need to do so. "But I heard something and it woke me up, and I've _never _been able to sleep when someone else was around anyway."

She stopped for a moment, suddenly unsure of how she should ask her question. After a second she chose to just blurt it out, knowing that there probably was no easy way to do so gently. "But why're you here? It's after 3 in the morning, you _never_ come down this late. And why didn't you show up earlier?"

Squall was always very hesitant and careful when he answered her questions, but when he took much longer to answer than normal alarm bells started to sound in her head. She wasn't sure why but somehow she had the feeling that this was not an ordinary visit, and it had nothing to do with the timing either. Something was different this time and she wasn't entirely sure she wanted to know.

When he did finally answer her, his tone was steadier. This did nothing to alleviate her concerns, however. "I'm sorry," he started. "It was a long day. I had a lot of homework and stuff I had to get done… I just… sort of… _forgot_."

She started at him with an arched eyebrow that relayed her scepticism but he seemed to be unable to see it as he pressed on with his explanation. "I didn't realize it until I woke up a little while ago. I came down here to see if you were still awake, to apologize, but you were already asleep. I didn't mean to disturb you, I'm really sorry."

"Is that why you were crying?" Rinoa asked abruptly, despite already knowing what the answer was.

Squall paused in his answer, a sign that told her she had caught him off guard with her question but after a moment he answered. "What? I wasn't crying."

"I heard you," Rinoa confessed. "That's the noise that woke me up. And unless there's someone else lurking in the shadows that neither of us has noticed yet, I'd say that was coming from you." She sighed heavily and brushed some wayward strands out of her face because they were beginning to tickle the bridge of her nose. "But somehow I doubt standing me up would be enough of a reason to get you to cry. And it's probably unlikely that it's the reason you're here now, as much as I appreciate the thought. So… I guess my next question is why are you lying to me?"

"But I'm not lying."

"Yes you are," Rinoa argued. "You _never _say that much in one go. I usually have to ask you a question to get you to continue to talk. And I think if you were coming down to check up on me you would have left when you realized I was asleep, not hang around by the bars. It makes no sense that you would do something like that, no matter how sorry you might feel. But it's the crying that kind of…"

"I said I was _not _crying," Squall cut her off, his tone so forceful she couldn't help but let the thick silence that followed continued unhindered.

At first she thought he might have been angry or even offended that she would keep getting back to that point but after a while she realized it wasn't anger she was hearing in his voice. It was almost like he was desperate to keep pretending that everything was alright and that the very thing that had woken her up hadn't even happened. Normally she might have agreed because she most definitely was not the most alert person in the mornings after a night's sleep but this was not the case. She had been fully awake when she'd identified the noise and she wondered why he was so desperate to pretend that it had never happened.

Then she thought back to her childhood when all the neighbourhood boys would act like tough guys and keep themselves from crying, declaring that only girls did that. Even throughout high school she knew that guys tended to get ostracized by their peers – boys and girls alike – if they wore their emotions on their sleeves and acted all sensitive. She was ashamed to admit that she probably added fuel to the fire, only pointing out her interest in the tough macho guys rather than the more sensitive ones. It was probably a dynamic that most guys grew up with, that crying was wrong and not something to be done at all.

Deciding that it might be better to leave the topic alone, if only for the meantime, Rinoa let out the breath she'd been holding and sighed. "Okay, so say I believe your explanation," she started. "Say that you really did forget and came all the way down here and just sat here when you realized that I was asleep for whatever reason. Do you see what's wrong with this picture and what makes it so hard for me to believe it?"

Squall didn't answer her and Rinoa decided that in itself was his answer. "Not once since you introduced yourself have you missed a night to visit me," she said and she forced back the hurt as the words impact hit her hard. "Not once were you even _late _to see me. Okay, maybe I wouldn't have noticed if you were since you have the uncanny ability to sneak up on me, but that's not the point. This routine we have has been going on for two weeks now, so I'm sorry if I find it difficult to believe that you just _forgot_. Do you see how _crazy _it is to ask me to believe that excuse with that blaring inconsistency?"

Again he said nothing and Rinoa found her frustration mounting at the silence. "All I know for sure is that something happened. Whatever the reason may be you don't want to tell me, but I won't get mad if it was something important. I won't judge you or think of you any differently, it was one night and it's not like you did it on purpose. I know you were telling me the truth about that, but I just want to know why it happened."

"I…" Squall said hesitantly before he cut himself off, almost mumbling the rest under his breath so lightly that Rinoa almost didn't hear it. "I can't tell you."

"Why not?" Rinoa asked in confusion. It seemed he had given up with the excuse as she'd poked enough holes to deflate a parade balloon, but the fact that he was outright refusing to tell her stung a little. She didn't know why it stung or why she was pestering him when it was obvious he didn't want to talk about it, but something inside was bothered by knowing that something had upset him so badly it brought him to the point of tears.

"Because I just can't."

She reached out to him again instinctively, not knowing what else she could possibly do. She wanted to help him, but she had no conceivable idea of where she should start. It was all just as well because she caught the sight of him flinch – not him directly, more like his silhouette – and realized that she was being far from helpful.

Realizing that touch was a trigger did not bring any comfort to her. Instead, it brought on dread because she knew that whatever was bothering him was far more serious than she could even begin to imagine. "I'm not going to hurt you," she said calmly, in an attempt to sound soothing and reassuring.

"I'm sorry."

This time it was Rinoa who flinched. She had noticed as they would talk throughout their visits that he would find something to apologize about. And he apologized a lot in comparison to anyone else she knew. She was beginning to realize that there was a reason for the behaviour, those two words had become more of a reflexive mantra than anything else. Something to appease whoever the words were directed to. It confirmed her suspicions. This was most definitely _not _going to be something good.

"Squall," she said, trying to maintain that same calm tone without sounding condescending or patronizing. Him thinking she was talking down to him or coddling him was most definitely not going to help matters. "I want to help you, really I do. But I can't if I don't know what's going on."

"It's none of your business," he suddenly snapped, though it lacked the conviction it required for any bite. That waver had returned, sounding far stronger than it had when she'd first startled him. She recognized them for what they were: an attempt to push her back and keep her away. Instead she steeled herself, preparing to stubbornly trudge all the way through, even though the voice in the back of her head was nagging at her to drop it, that she didn't really need to know.

"Yes, it is," she said calmly and quietly. This declaration was followed by a silence that she had not been expecting. She had thought he would shout, tirade about how this was something that he had to deal with and being the outsider that she was she couldn't possibly understand. Or something along those lines. Either way, she was grateful for it and refused to give him the opportunity to regroup, to argue the point. "It _is _my business. I'm making it my business because you're my friend. And I don't like watching my friends get hurt or suffer, _especially _if I can't do anything about it. So let me do something about it, even if it's just you talking about it. You might even feel better afterwards."

She could feel his gaze on her now, but he didn't say anything. Maybe it was the abrupt way she had said it, but it had felt right. It had felt like the truth. The instant the words had left her mouth she had known them to be just that, not just something to coerce him into cooperating. She had meant every word of what she'd said. Regardless that he wasn't helping her leave this place, he had at least done what he could to make her comfortable. But it was only now that she realized he was using her just as much as she was using him.

Rinoa decided that she really didn't mind all that much.

But then the almost speculative silence was broken when he spoke in such a small voice that it almost broke her heart how helpless he sounded. "We're friends?"

Rinoa nodded before realizing that he probably couldn't even see her in the dark and offered him a smile that added to her words as she spoke. "Yeah, we're friends. At least, I think we are. Don't you think so?"

"I've… never had a friend before."

"Well, you've gotta start somewhere," Rinoa said, not knowing what to say to that.

He didn't respond and somehow she could almost see the wheels turning in his head as he contemplated her words, no doubt searching for a sign that she wasn't being honest with him. She wouldn't have put it past him to think that she was manipulating him just to get to the truth and honestly she wasn't. She didn't think that she would care as much about what was bothering him if she didn't care about him in the first place. She probably would have taken his excuse as face-value, despite how unbelievable it sounded, and just let it all go, ignoring the signs that suggested at something deeper. Whatever it was seemed to have been bothering him for a while, probably longer than the two weeks she'd been there to begin with. Maybe he really did want to deal with it on his own, but she couldn't help but believe that there must be some part of him, regardless of how small, that truly wanted to say something. Why else would he have stayed there as long as he had when he could've gone anywhere else?

When he finally did speak, she almost jumped out of her skin in surprise. It was still in that small voice that made him sound so vulnerable and she tried to keep from letting him know that he'd startled her, knowing that it was neither the time nor the place to do so. "You _promise _that your opinion of me won't change? That you'll still treat me the same as before?"

"I can't make that promise," Rinoa said heavily but was quick to continue before he could interrupt. "I can only say that you might feel better if you get it off your chest."

He fell back into silence and for a second Rinoa thought that her answer had discouraged him to say anything more on the subject. But Rinoa was not in the habit of making promises that she couldn't keep, especially in situations as serious as this. But then there was a shifting noise as Squall moved closer to the bars and she could barely make out his hands in the dark as he came to sit just a couple of inches away from her. She took it as a sign that he might start talking, but she took no victory in it. This was more for him than it was for her anyway.

Taking a deep, shaky breath, Squall finally began his story after another moment's hesitation. "There's this guy who lives here. His name is Larry. I doubt you'll have met him. He doesn't deal in kidnapping. He deals in more… permanent… solutions. Things most people probably wouldn't be able to stomach."

He paused for a second and Rinoa took a moment to reflect that she most definitely didn't want to meet this Larry guy. "When I was younger, someone told me that I should go out of my way to keep away from him, that he wasn't the kind of guy I'd want to get close to. For a while I followed this advice, avoiding him whenever possible. I succeeded most of the time, though there were times where I couldn't just up and walk away. Usually there were other people around, so it wasn't entirely uncomfortable. It was almost like being in anyone else's company, really."

He took another breath as though it was capable to forcing him onward and Rinoa bit her lip, already thinking that she would not like the ending to this story. "But when I was thirteen, he managed to catch me before I could leave the room and go somewhere else. He acted all nice and asked if I wanted to hang out some time, that it had to beat wandering around by myself all the time. I was all ready to say no, but in the end despite this one person's warnings to me screaming in my head I decided on my own that I would take him up on his offer."

"Why?" Rinoa asked, unsure why anyone would disregard that kind of warning when it was apparent that it was good advice. She'd never met Larry but already she got the vibe that he was most definitely trouble.

"I already told you," Squall said and his voice sounded far away, like he was reliving a memory. She wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not, but from the sounds of it it was getting easier to talk about. Again she had mixed feelings on whether or not this was progress. "I was lonely. These people tend to target people in their late teens. Up until that point, there was no one to really talk to. The people in the cages had interests that I was too young to understand, and my interests tended to bore them. No one else would even look at me let alone let me hang around with them for more than five minutes at a time. Larry was the first in a long while to actually take the time aside to say more than a few words to me. I was… tired… of just being by myself all the time. So when Larry offered to hang out with me, I jumped at the opportunity."

Even in the dark Rinoa could see him as he hung his head at the thought, regret oozing off of him through just the action alone. "It turned out to be the biggest mistake I ever made."

"What happened?" Rinoa asked when Squall didn't start talking again after a little while.

Still he hesitated before proceeding and Rinoa almost asked him to stop when she realized just how much this was bothering him. But she forced herself to stay quiet, because she realized that if he didn't get it out in the open now, there would be no way to recover in the future, near or distant. Healing was what he needed to do and despite how painful it must be for him to have to relive this all over again the only way to truly heal was the face and confront one's inner demons. To accept what had happened, even if it was painful.

"The first time, I didn't even know what had happened. I woke up in my bed, which was odd because the last thing I remembered was not being in my room. But the most I did remember was being in a lot of pain. It hurt to move, almost hurt to _breathe_ and I spent the next couple days laid up in bed. I couldn't even go to my lessons. I thought the tutors were going to kill me for cutting classes, but they turned out to be surprising understanding. They told me to take a few days to recover. The next time I saw Larry though, I asked him what had happened and why it hurt so bad. He told me to come by when I was feeling better and he'd show me."

He sounded almost ashamed of himself as he continued. "Against my better judgement, I visited him again. _This _time, I was awake for it."

Again he stopped talking and Rinoa hoped for his sake that her imagination was worse than what had actually happened. She almost didn't want to hear it if it wasn't, but still she asked. "Awake for what?"

It took a little bit of time but Squall was finally able to answer her, sounding like he was forcing himself to continue. "Larry… he… he… God, I can't even _say_ it." He let out a breath that seemed both awkward and frustrated and she was almost afraid that she was pushing him to do something he wasn't ready for. Still, he forced himself on and she couldn't help but admire him for it. If she had been in his place, she might not have been able to even get this far, even with the constant pushing she had offered. "He… he _hurt_ me… in ways that I never thought were possible until then… Loneliness was preferable to what he did…"

He barely spoke above a whisper, allowing their surrounding area to become so deathly quiet that she would have been deaf not to have heard him as he spoke. She tried very hard not to react, not to give into the grief she now felt for him. She only held on because she knew from how he'd tried to make her make that promise, to keep treating him the same as she did without this knowledge, that it would only serve to push him away if she gave in. And she wouldn't allow him any excuse to withdraw, especially now that she did know. He didn't need to say the words, just from how much he'd managed to tell her already she knew what had happened.

Amazingly enough he wasn't done. She forced herself to listen, to stay rooted to the spot, because it was the only thing she could do for him for now. Reaching for him like she wanted to was clearly the last thing she should do, especially knowing that physical contact was the last thing he needed. "I've managed to avoid him for the last two months now. It's not like I had to try, he's been on so many jobs that he hasn't been around much lately. Admittedly, it was really the only reason I came down here in the first place. I didn't want to run into him again."

Rinoa didn't need for him to continue to get the whole picture. Her blood turned cold as she realized in dread that she really had every right to worry about him after all. Though not for the reasons she had originally believed. "He did it tonight, didn't he?"

Words seemed to fail him and Rinoa immediately realized her blunder, instantly clapping her hands to her mouth to keep from saying anything more than she had. Her earlier questions were to guide him on and to help him as he spoke, but now she felt like she had just asked the absolute wrong question. She could see as he wrapped his arms around his legs, much like she had when she'd first arrived, and pressed his face against his knees, obscuring his face from view. This time she was unable to hold back. All caution was thrown to the wind as she reached over and began to rub his back soothingly. She realized what she was doing just after she'd started but was shocked to discover that he hadn't flinched or moved away this time. But she could feel how he was shaking, almost trembling and realized that he probably had been from the moment he'd started talking in the first place.

It was shortly after she'd started to rub his back that he seemed to regain himself enough to speak. It amazed Rinoa to no end because she knew she would have been a blubbering mess by this point in time. He didn't raise his head, causing his words to become muffled and forcing Rinoa to strain her hearing in order to pick up on what he was saying. He was most definitely crying now and seemed unable to hold himself back. Hitched breaths were the only thing that interrupted him as he seemingly forced himself to keep talking. "I was just leaving to grab those things, but when I opened the door he was just _there_, like he'd materialized out of nowhere. I couldn't stop him from coming in and when I tried to get out, I couldn't, not this time. It's happened before, so _many _times before. But _never _in my own room!"

He gave a shuddering sob and Rinoa joined in as she closed her eyes and forced back the tears that had gathered. Taking a shuddering breath, she willed herself to remain calm and it was taking every ounce of energy she had in her to keep it together. She wanted to hug him but the bars were in the way, making it an awkward endeavour. Instead she was forced to settle with pulling him closer to her, which caused his side to press up against the metal rods while she stroked his arm and his back.

They stayed like that for a long while with only his broken sobs filling the room of any sound. It was only when he started to show signs of calming down that she released her hold, knowing that the contact would most definitely not be welcome. It was a little after that when he finally spoke up at all, his tone betraying how broken and ashamed he actually was. "I'm sorry."

"Stop apologizing," Rinoa said firmly, though it was a struggle to keep it from sounding too hard. She didn't want to make him think she was angry with him, that she blamed him for what had happened to him. More importantly she didn't want to scare him away, especially since he'd just shared with her something so personal. "You have absolutely _nothing _to be sorry for. _Larry _is the one who should be sorry. Guys like him should be castrated. They shouldn't be allowed to integrate with the public at all."

Something occurred to Rinoa at that moment and she voiced it just as quickly as it became a thought in her mind. "Have you said anything to anyone else?"

"No," Squall answered in a small voice. "No, you're the first person I've told."

"Why not?" Rinoa asked incredulously. She'd heard in class and from statistics researched on the news that it was more likely for a woman to report a rape than it was for a guy. The reason was that guys were never raised to believe that rape was a possibility for them and when it did happen they were too ashamed to talk to anyone about it. This very situation reminded her of this.

"Because no one would care if I complained," Squall said with a verbal shrug.

Rinoa stared at him for a second and realized in horror that he was actually telling the truth. He actually believed that. "What do you mean no one would care? I think your parents might have something to say about this _monster _attacking their child the way that he has. If my dad knew that something like that had happened to me, there would be no stopping him from utterly _destroying _the sick sonovabitch who was responsible. He'd gladly serve a life-sentence for it too."

"My parents?" Squall asked, sounding confused.

Rinoa rolled her eyes at the ridiculousness of the question and couldn't stop herself as she launched into her tirade. "Yes Squall, _parents._ The people who sired you, the people who raised you and are thus responsible for your well-being. The two people who head a family, the –"

"I know what a parent is, Rinoa," Squall said, sounding almost offended that she would even be talking down to him like this.

"And you think they wouldn't care?"

"I didn't say that. I think they would care… if I had them. But I don't. I don't have a family here. If I did, I doubt I'd still be here."

Rinoa gaped at him in surprise at this admission. She had believed that the only reason he'd stuck around was _because_ of his family. Knowing he was here without them didn't make much sense to her. He didn't sound at all like he had the energy to get into it right now though and she didn't want to push him, not after the night he'd already had.

But then he surprised her when he sighed and started talking. "I've been here for as long as I can remember. These people took me in when I was a little kid when they could have just as easily dumped me off somewhere else. I hate it here, I hate the people here, I hate everything about this place. They treat me like a burden and maybe I am to them. Just another mouth to feed, except I don't exactly earn my keep around here."

"If you hate it so much, why don't you just leave?" Rinoa asked. Just from this conversation alone she realized he needed to get away from these people and the sooner he did the better the chance he would have. He was trapped here just as much as she was, maybe even more so. "Start a life somewhere else. Some place where it's sunny and warm, where you don't have to worry about placating people who don't give a damn. You could start over, maybe even _forget_ the past."

"No," Squall said through a heavy sigh and Rinoa felt like she was hitting her head against a brick wall. He had all the reasons in the world to want to pick up and leave, yet he was being so stubborn and clinging to this place he absolutely _hated_. She couldn't understand why. "No, I couldn't."

"Why not? You have more reason to want to get out of here than even _I _do! Why would you want to stay here?"

"It's not a matter of _wanting_ to stay," Squall bit back almost bitterly. "It's about where I would possibly go. In here, in this place that I hate so much, I know _everything _there is to know about it. I could tell you exactly which way would get you to the bedrooms the fastest, to the storage, _anywhere and everywhere_. I could point you in the direction of each and every secret god-damned tunnel and passageway that there ever was. If given enough time I could probably draw some pretty accurate blueprints of this place. This place is _familiar_. Out there, it's too big, there's too much of it. I'd _never _know it as inside and out as this place. I've never been out there before. I've been out of the building but only as far as the property line leads, nowhere near beyond that. Just the thought of it is enough to make me sick to my stomach."

Rinoa was suddenly stunned when she caught sight of those grey eyes – filled with troubled thoughts and worries of his own – turn to her. "And I know that's exactly what you want for yourself but no matter how much you want to go home I can't help you. I know you haven't asked in a while and I'm sorry if that makes you hate me, but I just can't. In the end, you're probably safer not trying to leave anyway."

She couldn't help but feel like he'd just gone and slapped her across the face. What he said was true, she hadn't actually brought up the subject of escaping in a while. But for him to turn around and just say that now, when she'd only been trying to help him out of the goodness of her heart, stung. But she knew that right now this was not about her, nor would she make it out to be. "It's okay," she whispered at great length, even though it really wasn't. "I understand."

But she was surprised when she realized she felt more miserable that he was so adamant against leaving than she did at the prospect of never seeing her family again. These people – whoever they were – all needed to be shot. They'd had him sheltered to the point where he just couldn't imagine leaving at all, giving him such a crippling sense of agoraphobia that she didn't know if there was any means of getting over it.

Despite the sympathy a small part of her couldn't help the sting from being reminded that she couldn't go home and it made her suddenly want to be alone. Slowly, she rose to her feet with a tired sigh. "I'm kind of tired, so I'm going to go back to bed."

She turned to do just that, but then sudden movement from beyond the cell drew her attention back. "Rinoa, wait."

She did wait instead of just ignoring him and proceeding to her bed, because despite the hurt she had meant it when she'd told him that she at least considered them to be friends. While that hurt did sting, she couldn't find it in herself to blame him, because he was only doing what he thought he needed to do to protect himself. She couldn't even begin to imagine what it would be like to live like this, and considered herself lucky that she didn't.

"I know that this request is selfish, given what I've just said to you," Squall said, sounding almost embarrassed and ashamed. "And I wouldn't blame you if you said no but… can I stay here? Even if it's just for tonight… I… I can't go back there…"

"Of course."

Rinoa's answer was without hesitation. She knew that even if he was unwilling to help her in the end she couldn't very well blame him for not wanting to go back to his room. Not after what he'd just been put through. She doubted he would ever want to go back really, but only he could do something about that. "There's not much in the way of blankets around here and there's no pillows to help get comfortable. You'll have to sleep on the floor, but you're more than welcome to spend the night here if you'd like."

"Thank you," Squall said and his tone betrayed how grateful he was for this. She could make out his silhouette as he made himself comfortable beside the bars. "It's more than I expected, really."

There was a moment of silence as Rinoa lay down on the cot but just as she did, Squall spoke again. "Rinoa? I'm really…"

Rinoa rolled her eyes and sat back up again. "Squall, I swear to _God_, if you apologize one more time, I _will _attack you. I may not have instruments of ultimate doom at my disposal, but I do have my nails. Where I'm from, their legends of battle have spread throughout the land. Don't laugh, it's true."

She was only threatening him in jest but really she just wanted him to stop apologizing for every little thing. He needed to learn that not everything he did was going to provoke a negative response, even if she had to teach him this lesson herself. It seemed to dawn on him that she wasn't being serious and he let out a small chuckle that died out almost as quickly. "Okay. Goodnight. And… thank you."

"Goodnight," Rinoa chimed before returning to her place on the cot.

Though despite the light-hearted ending of their evening together, Rinoa couldn't help but still feel saddened by all she'd learned that night, and it was when she was sure Squall wouldn't catch her that she allowed her unshed tears to fall down her cheeks with her gaze settled against the wall in front of her, lamenting all that had happened to her friend.

And she had a feeling that she was not the only one.

* * *

_First and foremost I would like to apologize if some of you are not liking the direction of the story. Again I've been writing it on and off for three years now, and while some things have changed others have not. Rape is not at all something to be taken lightly and while I (thankfully) have not been a victim I don't wish to offend anyone who has. I apologize if it offends someone, but this part of the story has been one of the parts that has lasted long throughout my planning phase and while it's not the focal point of the story it does serve to further explore the character's development (of course we all know that the real Squall would kick my ass if he ever read such a thing... if he existed anyway). It further adds to the events that have led him to where he is in the story. Again, sorry to have offended anyone._

_On that note, I actually meant to post this chapter sooner, but work got ahead of me. I spent nearly 11 hours at work yesterday (Monday) and by the time I got home I was too tired to edit and ended up falling asleep in front of the TV. Haven't done that since I was five. I hope that regardless of the content in the chapter this chapter was good: my longest one yet for this story._


	5. Chapter 5: Breaking Points and Promises

_So I'm glad the last chapter was well received. I was really dreading it and the feedback to be honest, given that this is my first attempt at writing something as dark as this and given that I have absolutely no experience with the situation I wanted it to be believable. Also glad that no one saw it coming._

_Also, please forgive me for my lack of creativity when it comes to original characters and their names. I'm totally shit at thinking of them and since I consider Galbadia as more American than anything I guess it sort of sticks. Still... Bleh._

_Also I know some of you may be curious about what's going on in the outside world, but I wrote this strictly in Rinoa's point of view, so sadly that won't get addressed as much as it probably should in the story. Apologies to those disappointed by this turn of events but that's just the way I'd always planned the story._

* * *

When Rinoa had awoken the next morning, it was to discover that the hateful light bulb was back on, burning just as dimly as it had been before. She had also discovered that her overnight companion was nowhere in sight and that someone had already set her food tray through the bars, leaving her to her devices as they went about whatever it was they did around here. At first she had been disappointed to learn she had been left alone but in hindsight she should have realized this was an inevitable outcome. If Squall wasn't supposed to be down here visiting in the first place then it was understandable that he would have been on the lookout for possible intruders. The only reason he had left her while she was asleep was probably because he hadn't wanted to wake her up (he seemed to have felt really bad when he'd initially discovered her awake at that un-godly hour after all). Whether he was making it up to her by letting her sleep a little longer or he hadn't had the time to say goodbye was irrelevant, but she still felt bad. She knew that after everything was said and done he was expected to just put what happened last night out of his mind and continue as he normally did. No one was going to award him any sympathy, whether he wanted it or not.

She couldn't help but wonder if this revelation would change things between them. Despite his desire to keep things the way they had been until the previous night, the terrible knowledge he had trusted her enough to possess felt heavy on her shoulders, almost suffocating so. She didn't want for there to be any tension between them after the fact, to become awkward to the point that they couldn't talk about the things that they used to talk about now that she knew the truth. It had been a day full of mulling and worrying that had left Rinoa in an anxious state. At least until she'd realized she'd had company close to midnight.

She'd learned within seconds that despite her wishes things had changed between the pair. What she hadn't expected was for those changes to have been for the better. The first thing he'd done (aside from the seemingly required small talk that consisted of asking how the other was) was thank her for pushing him as much as she had into talking about it. He'd admitted that while he didn't feel that much better he didn't feel like the knowledge of what had been done was about to crush him. Okay, those weren't exactly his words, but that was how Rinoa's scattered mind had interpreted them at least. She'd been so thunderstruck that she hadn't said a word for at least a half hour afterwards.

Even now, she could tell that it had done him some good. He was more open and honest with her, less likely to shut down whenever she broached one of those 'hot button' topics she caught him attempting to avoid. He was much more willing to talk about himself now than he had been the last two weeks she'd been trapped there. He even looked less sad and lost, like his mind was struggling in troubled waters, instead living in the now with his full attention with her.

Since that night they had talked about quite a lot of things. He'd admitted during earlier this visit that he had been curious about life at an actual school. In response, Rinoa had regaled him with all the horrible tales of being hounded by teachers who practically lurked throughout the halls whenever she skipped a class (the look on his face at the very idea of cutting class and _not _getting caught was absolutely priceless). She hadn't focused completely on the negative though and had included the laughs she'd had with her friends those classes at her locker, some of the more interesting subjects that had been taught by some of her favourite teachers and, probably her favourite part of all, the music room that was filled to the brim with any musical instrument known to anyone.

Rinoa was careful to stress that while school was a pain in the ass, it wasn't all bad. In reality, the only downside she could think of was the lack of one-on-one between students and their teachers. Even at the well privileged schools she'd attended, the classrooms were always full and some subjects were split between different instructors as a result. Moreover, if a student had a question it was very unlikely that they would get the full answer if they were the only one suffering. Because of this most students simply laid their heads down and pretended to understand the subject matter if they were the only ones who actually didn't.

When she'd run out of general school-related things to talk about, she had gone for broke and talked about more humorous instances of her life at school. In fact, she had just finished talking about one of the most humiliating, embarrassing and damn-near mortifying episodes of her life that happened when she was about nine years old. Despite it being totally self-incriminating, she didn't feel like sitting around in silence that came with having nothing to talk about, more because it would draw her thoughts into unpleasant subjects that she would rather avoid rather than create the awkward and tense atmosphere that she was afraid would have happened. If anything the last thing Squall needed was to become trapped in his own mind with thoughts of what had happened because she was struggling with subjects to entertain them both.

"Wait a minute, I don't quite understand," Squall said as he looked horribly confused. There was a light in his eyes that she couldn't have missed if she was blind, something that told her that he found her story amusing. She could also hear the smile behind the words, and either she was hearing things or he was actually holding back a laugh. Still, she couldn't help but find that she actually liked it when he smiled and she mirrored the action rather sheepishly. "How does someone manage to get hit by a _parked _car? I thought the whole idea of the car being parked was that it was completely stationary, unable to move on its own."

"Yeah I knew I'd get your attention by phrasing it that way," Rinoa said with the shake of her head. Though honestly she had known all along that she'd had is attention already. "What _really _happened was I was rolling down the hill on my new bike when and I couldn't break in time to avoid running into the minivan that was parked right in the way. I almost flew over the top of the van but I managed to avoid splitting my chin open somehow. By my best-friend at the time was taping it all along and decided to play it for show and tell… only she didn't limit the viewing to the class like what was supposed to happen."

Leaning back so that her arms supported a majority of her weight, she continued with the story. "That's one of the perks of being a rich kid going to a rich kid's school." She used air quotes at the word 'perks' just to emphasise how impressed she was with the so-called advantage. "They tend to get the best of what money can buy. In this case, our school announcements were broadcast on television screens hanging all over the school. In the gyms, in the halls, at the pool, each and every classroom… you get the picture. I guess somehow she'd managed to edit it so that the words 'so dumb she got hit by a parked car' were on the bottom half of the screen as she replayed this one scene. I didn't live it down for an entire _month _after that and, sadly for her, our friendship didn't survive the stunt."

"Okay… yeah… I can see how that would be embarrassing." Squall tilted his head to the side. "You know what? I think this is the _first _time I've ever been glad not to attend public school. Kids are cruel."

"Mostly the girls," Rinoa agreed with a nod. "Seriously, I kid you not. While we may not always resort to physical violence, we can be just as vicious. Hair pulling doesn't even _begin _to cover it."

"I think I'm probably better off just taking your word for it."

"Smart move." Rinoa let out a giggle at the very thought. "Not to scare you or anything, but your awkwardness and shy disposition would get you eaten alive, _especially_ in high school. Kids are like animals in a way: they can smell fear."

She laughed again before tilting her head to the side. "And now it's _your _turn. What's the _most_ embarrassing thing you've ever done in your life? Right off the top of your head."

The expression on his face sobered a bit as he watched her for a moment and she realized he was looking for any sign that she might be joking. This became apparent as the smile slowly fell from his features and he suddenly shook his head. "No, you don't want to hear it."

Her face fell. "Aw… why not? I told you mine."

"But yours was funny," Squall explained and Rinoa shot him a mock-hurt look. "And even _you _laughed as you talked about it. Mine's not funny, it's just sad, and stupid… and… _sad_."

"You mentioned that last one already."

"It's pathetic enough that it warrants emphasis."

"Oh?" Rinoa hummed as she leaned forward, folding her arms across her chest. "_Now _I really want to know."

Squall looked hesitant and suddenly Rinoa realized she might be pushing too much. Maybe he really didn't want to talk about it. Maybe she was pushing him into divulging too much of himself, taking advantage of his candidness to tell her things he probably never told anyone else. Feeling terrible that she was prying where she had no business to pry, Rinoa was just about to tell him that she had only been joking when he suddenly let out a sigh and spoke up before she could. "Okay, so you remember back when I told you that I didn't have any family, right?"

At the reminder, Rinoa's stomach sank and she became less sure that she wanted to hear this. Still she nodded in response, albeit hesitantly, and Squall seemed to take that as a sign to continue. "Well… when I was younger I… _sort of_… maybe… _invented _one for myself."

And he suddenly ducked his head down and almost into the shadows, more than likely trying to disappear out of mortification. Rinoa couldn't help but let the bursts of giggles escape her at not only the sight of him trying to hide but at the admission itself. "See? I told you it was stupid."

"No-no-no-no-no! It's _not_ stupid!" Rinoa gushed through her giggles. "It's actually adorable! That wasn't sad at all."

His eyes narrowed at that, which had the effect of sobering Rinoa slightly as he spoke almost accusingly. "You're lying. You're just trying to make me feel better."

"No actually, I'm not… okay maybe a little," Rinoa said as she held her index finger barely an approximated millimetre apart. "But I really _am_ telling the truth. It's not stupid and it's not sad. It's actually kind of normal to want what you don't have. Everyone does it at one point or another in their lives. I've always been an only child and when I was growing up I would have killed to have a sibling. Whether they were older or younger than me didn't matter, just having someone else to play with would have been enough. But I had friends who had brothers and sisters and they would've traded places with me any day of the week… well, okay… maybe not now…" Rinoa giggled awkwardly as she looked around the cell. "So it's perfectly normal to fantasize about something you don't have."

"So much so that you act like it's true?" Squall asked disbelieving.

Rinoa nodded. "Yep, especially when we're that young. Kids play make-believe all the time. They pretend to have something they don't have, to be something they're not in real life. To be important to almost everyone in the grand scheme of things, even though there are so many people in the world you're bound to find someone who doesn't even know who you are. Trust me, you have _nothing _to be ashamed of from doing what everyone does at some point in their lives."

Leaning back against the wall behind her, Rinoa returned her gaze towards the ceiling. "I used to pretend that I was a princess who lived in a large and grand old castle. That my parents were really the King and Queen of the kingdom who ruled over everything and every_one_. I'd arrange my stuffed animals in a line beside my window and act like I was addressing the Royal Court, talking about world peace and thinking about how much they all must love me and be jealous of me at the same time. That they'd _wish _they could be me."

She giggled lightly and she watched as the confused and disbelieving look returned to Squall's eyes. "Sadly I _am_ not lying about that. My mom's got the video footage to prove it. She says she's holding it hostage for viewing when I go to my first prom and won't tell me where it is so I can destroy it before she can make good on that threat. I admit it, when I was a kid I suffered from illusions of grandeur and my mom's sure as hell gonna make sure I suffer the consequences. But I just wanted to be special. Like I said, most kids do."

She shook herself of the memories as she started to feel more melancholy because of them and gestured to him. "So… what was your imaginary family like?" Jumping up so that she was sitting on her knees now with her arms holding her up she grinned widely. "Do I get to meet them?"

"You really want to know?" Squall asked.

"Well I wouldn't ask if I didn't," Rinoa said with a verbal shrug. "C'mon! Tell me about them. Was it just the three of you or were there other siblings that were running around making your life hell? Were they all nice? Were they mean? Was it a combination? I demand details!"

He hesitated for a moment, still seemingly unsure of whether to proceed or not. Rinoa could tell that her encouragement was helping him steer his decision towards the positive and at long last he caved. "Okay, well there was only the three of us."

"And?" Rinoa encouraged when he paused.

"And," Squall said through a sigh. "It was a _really _long time ago. I don't remember too much about them. Not to mention that they're not actually real."

"Who cares?" Rinoa asked. "The fact that you made them up means you still remember them somewhere deep down. And a kid's imagination is a very powerful thing, you know. It's more powerful and reliable than any kind of memory out there. Besides, any little detail will do."

"Well," Squall said at great length, seemingly after taking some time to think on it. "They were definitely much nicer to me than anyone else here, _that's _for sure. Present company being the exemption." Rinoa took a little bow to show that she was not offended before he proceeded. "They didn't just ignore me or act like I was just in the way all the time. I was actually important to them. Someone to care about, I guess."

He stopped suddenly but somehow Rinoa got the distinct impression that he was trying to remember a time where they had seemed almost as real to him as anything else that had happened in his life. After about a minute had passed, he was talking again, though his voice was tinged with hesitation as he spoke. It also held a wistfulness, a fondness even, that had been lacking before. "The dad was the fun one. He always made excuses to avoid having to work and would play around all day if no one stopped him. Even when I got tired he was still begging me to keep playing. Hide and seek was his favourite game. The mom was the disciplinarian… I guess you could call her that. She was stricter than he was, always making sure that stuff got done when it was supposed to. She would always tell off the dad for not being serious enough, and tell him that he had to learn eventually that life was not all fun and games. He would pout and ask her why not and then she'd hit him with a pillow or a towel and he'd pretend like she'd actually hurt him.

"But, despite the hard edge and the insistence that neither one of us would survive without her picking up after us, she smiled a lot." He stopped again, his gaze distant and far-away, though this time in a more pleasant time. Rinoa decided to leave him be, because it would be a shame to disturb him when he was like this. "She had a nice smile. It always brightened up the room. Even when she was telling me to stop playing and clean my room I couldn't stay mad at her when she smiled at me like that."

But then he seemed to come back to himself because his gaze was suddenly clearer and the small smile that had spread across his features fell away. He looked down suddenly and Rinoa got the impression that he was playing with his fingers but she couldn't actually tell since they were withdrawn into the dark. "But when I was about nine years old I realized that no matter how much fun it was to pretend, that was really all it was. That I had to get my head out of the clouds and grown up. I had stop pretending. I was miserable for a long time afterwards, but I think it's better to face reality then to set yourself up for a crushing fall. That's what I was doing to myself in the end."

"Maybe," Rinoa hummed sadly. "But who could blame you when this is your alternative? I know _I'd _rather pretend my life away than accept the way things are. I mean, if I were in your shoes…" her eyes flicked to the bottom of the cell and she suddenly felt bashful. She had learned a couple of nights ago that he wandered around the building barefoot, not even owning a pair of shoes to call his own. "Um… can we start over? That was rather offensive."

Squall actually let out a laugh. "I'll forgive the lapse this time."

"So…" Rinoa said at great length once the laughter had died down. The silence that had fallen felt awkward and subdued for the first time in the few nights and she didn't want for it to linger. "Are you spending the night here again?"

"Could I?" Squall asked, sounding like he was trying to keep the hope out of his voice.

Rinoa nodded, though really she didn't need to ask. For the past few days he had spent the night lying on the floor next to her cell despite the fact that Larry had yet to make another appearance to him. He'd assured her that the camera was positioned so that it only showed her, so he was in the clear while she stole all the attention. She figured he wasn't about to take any chances.

"I'd offer you a pillow but, well… you know." She added cheekily.

"It's okay. If I get desperate, I'll just borrow one," Squall said lightly but just as quickly as he said the words his features darkened as he looked back down awkwardly. Rinoa suspected that his thoughts were back to the last time he had thought to borrow something that did not belong to him.

Rinoa tried to smile reassuringly but found that she had a hard time holding it in place. Shaking herself of the sullen mood, she sighed lightly in an attempt to brighten it somewhat. "Do you want to talk about it?" She asked tentatively.

"Actually I think I want to go to bed now," he replied in such a small voice she almost didn't hear him.

"Oh…" she said quietly even as he moved from his sitting position to lie down beside the cage. She tried to keep the hurt and disappointment out of her tone but found that she had failed. He didn't seem to take notice, but she knew she couldn't just leave things as they were. "Squall…"

He shifted slightly in the dark and she could tell that he was looking right at her, waiting for her to say her peace. "You know you can talk to me, right? About anything?"

Silence greeted her and for a moment she thought he might have decided not to answer her. But then he spoke, his answer almost causing her to jump out of her skin. "Yeah, I do."

"So, whenever you feel like you need to just let it all out, I'll listen," she assured him, hoping that he knew that she was telling him the truth.

"Yeah," He said at great length. "I will… someday."

She left it at that, feeling like she would be intruding on him by trying to talk with him further. Deciding that there wasn't much else for her to do, she moved as quietly as she could manage to her cot, lay down and tried to go to sleep. It was a long time coming.

* * *

Over the next week everything seemed to blur together into an inseparable mess. It was becoming more and more painfully apparent that she was becoming disgustingly used to being in that cell. It was almost normal to wake up in the cramped looking room. The life she'd lived before being kidnapped felt like it had happened years ago when it was closer to a month in reality. The thought terrified her, had almost driven her into a panic attack when she'd first learned of just how much time had actually passed. As the time crawled on and the more comfortable she became the more she hated herself for her complacency. Despite how grateful she was for Squall's presence she felt like she was giving up on escaping, that she wasn't doing enough to get out and see her family again.

Despite how much he tried, she was still very unhappy.

But really what could she do about it? Squall had already told her that he didn't have access to the key so it wasn't like she could just knock him out and take it from him. And even if he had, she was no more capable of attack him than she was at bending the bars herself. She wouldn't have had the heart to just leave him there holding the bag while she made her bid to freedom. But even _with _a key she had no idea where she would go or how she would leave this place, whether it was even above ground or not.

These were the thoughts that were a constant whenever she was left alone, whenever she was trying not to think of her family and how much she missed them. These were the feelings that plagued her mind whenever she zoned out into space, the sick feeling that she'd always had before Squall would arrive and serve as a distraction. The mixture of homesickness and disgust at her inactivity always combatted within until she could scream at the unfairness of it all.

The only thing she'd asked at all that night was for the date, because she had been curious. She had kept this knowledge to herself, refusing to even hint about it to Squall because he had his own problems and concerns to deal with. His day-to-day was bad enough without her making him feel any guiltier than he already did.

Days and nights melted into each other, intermingling into such a mixture that it was almost difficult to pinpoint where one started and the other ended. Only the watch and Squall's constant visits kept her from losing her mind, which allowed her to put on a brave face during the night while she was utterly miserable throughout the day. He hadn't noticed. Or at least she thought he hadn't. But amidst the silence that had fallen between them this night when she couldn't be bothered to fill it with random chatter as she had done before, his sigh broke through it. She felt bad that he might be bored but she couldn't bring herself to do much about it.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

Rinoa looked up at the sudden question, the words echoing through her mind. The question had been asked so quietly that had there been any other sound she might not have heard him. But amidst the silence it was the equivalent of a crash of thunder. She didn't jump necessarily but she did shift her position, wrapping her arms around her legs and resting her chin atop her knees. "Talk about what?"

"Whatever's bothering you," Squall answered slowly. "You told me a few nights ago that I could tell you anything. I'd like for you to be able to do the same."

There was an awkward silence that followed his answer and Rinoa found that Squall was the one to break it. "I think that it's sort of selfish for me to say this, but you're my friend. And I don't like to see you upset. I understand that this is the last place you want to be, but I want to be able to do anything you need to keep you comfortable. Even if it's just sitting here like this, not saying anything. I've noticed that something's been bothering you for a while now, and I thought you might talk about it when you were ready, but somehow I don't think just sitting around is going to make it any better."

There was a pang as his words hit a little too close to home and she bristled at the words. It had nothing to do with what he was trying to do and, if Rinoa had been thinking even a little clearer, she might have realized that it was his offer to help her that had set her off. "I _can't_." she said, almost springing up onto her feet but forcing herself back at the last second. Instead she released her hold on her legs and allowed them to stretch out in front of her. "I can't just ask you for your help, because I already _have_! And I _understand_! I understand why you can't do anything about it, and I've already accepted that but _that's _the problem! And it doesn't make it stop hurting!"

Now that she had started it was impossible to stop. Even if she had been in the right frame of mind to consider everything and everyone around her she wouldn't have been able to staunch the flow of emotions that had just been unleashed. "Do you _know _what the last thing I said to my parents was? The _very _last thing? I told them that I _hated _them! I said those three words without really understanding what they meant, and for what? For something trivial and stupid and completely selfish! I had to go to my classes while everyone else took off on an early holiday because _they're _parents said they could! Big _fucking _deal! It wasn't like I was the _only _one, there were several kids still left in that classroom who had to do the exact same thing as me but I was too caught up in my own drama, at how unfair it was that _I _had to stay behind to see that!

"And do you know the worst part? I'll _never _get a chance to take back those words, to apologize for them and to tell my parents I never meant it, to tell them that I love them more than anything else in the world and that I'm sorry for being so stupid and pigheaded! That's the last thing they will remember hearing from me: that I _hated _them for doing the responsible thing because they wanted to see my grades improve before the holidays. My mom's birthday is next _Saturday_, but she's probably too worried sick about me to even consider celebrating! And I would love nothing more in the world to be with her to do so but I _can't _because I have no _hope _of ever getting out of this _god-damned cell_!

And that was when the well that had been steadily building up within Rinoa for the past few weeks suddenly overflowed and she found herself crying almost hysterically, unable to stop and calm herself down. She wiped at her eyes futilely as they stubbornly continued their downpour and her sobs and hiccups filled the air as she suddenly felt foolish for her actions. Her outburst did not have the sobering effect that might have been expected, instead making her feel even more miserable as the realization that she was stuck here in this cell hit home. But now that she had let it out, her shoulders felt a little lighter of the burden she'd been carrying.

But then she felt dread as she heard a shuffling from beyond the cell and her head shot up at the implication. Wiping at her eyes furiously she crawled closer to the bars to get a look outside of them, though once again she was thwarted by the pitifully dim light. "Squall?" She asked tentatively.

"I've got to go," he said almost automatically. The tone he spoke in gave no indication of his thoughts or what he was thinking, but his voice was small and almost inaudible. She felt bad, because her intention had not been to hurt his feelings. In her attempt to be honest for once instead of just hiding her feelings, she'd just happened to take out her frustration on the one person in this damn place who actually cared.

"Squall, please stay," Rinoa begged. "I'm sorry I hurt your feelings. _Please_ don't leave me alone!"

It occurred to her as she heard her words echo back at her that she was only talking to herself, that he'd already done what she pleaded for him not to. The faint sound of the door closing in the distance made it final and she found herself collapsing on her knees with fresh tears springing to her eyes. Curling into a ball, she didn't even try to hold back the sobs that wracked her this time as she lay there with only her misery as company.

* * *

Rinoa found herself trapped in the same manner she had been when she'd first awoken in the cell. Time moved at a crawl and she would find herself drifting into her own thoughts before she would snap out of them, remembering that she was still in this hell before repeating the pattern. Two things were different this time. First, she at least had a watch to tell her the time and she had learned how to roughly judge the day based on that. The second was the knowledge that she had had someone to talk to and she had no idea whether he would be back to keep up their routine.

The first made things a little more bearable. The second took a sledgehammer to the first and shattered it.

She barely did anything aside from the occasional shift anymore, barely even touched food, so depressed she was. She had no hope of leaving and now she would be stuck in this hell, both the one she had no control over and the one she had created. From what she had judged it had been at least two days since she'd last spoken to Squall. It reminded her of the last time he had suddenly left, only now it was much worse because he wasn't there to suddenly appear and assure her that he would not leave again.

So much for his assurances. He promised he wouldn't run if she talked to him like a normal person. The first thing he did was run.

She felt bitterness encompass her very being at the thought. She had poured all of her trust into that one person and he broke it with one single action. Heedless of her pleas he had still left her behind. The worst part was in knowing that he had asked to know, that was the part that hurt the most.

Suddenly a whispered noise broke through Rinoa's thoughts. She blinked as she started and slowly looked around for any sign of anyone or anything that could have made that sound. Then she saw the arms poking out of the darkness, though they were not wrapped around the bars as per the norm. Suddenly aware of who it was, Rinoa turned her head marginally in the direction of the wall opposite the bars. Moments ago, she would have given anything for someone to speak to but now she realized she didn't have anything to say to him for how he had treated her.

The gesture told her visitor that he had caught her attention and she heard the subtle shift that came with his crouching to the ground. The hands were still exposed – probably a means of reassuring her that she was not alone. "Hey, I can't stay too long today. I just wanted to make sure you were okay."

Anger threatened to boil over and she turned to face him in her indignation. "You come _now _after running off the way you did? _Now _you suddenly care? It's been _two _days, Squall. Two days you've left me here by myself second-guessing everything I've ever said, everything I ever told you. And suddenly you think that _now_ is a good time to check up on me when you shouldn't have left me like that in the first place? You _promised _me you wouldn't run off like that but you did it anyway! How can I trust you now?!"

The arms rose up so that only the elbows could be seen and she realized by the posture that he had put his face in his hands. More than likely he had just realized his mistake, though far too late in Rinoa's opinion. It at least helped to note that he looked a little sorry for his actions but she wasn't quite in the forgiving mood. "Rinoa… I'm so, so sorry. You have every right to be mad. You have every right to even hate me right now, but I promise I'm going to make it up to you."

"How?"

"I… can't tell you that."

Rinoa sighed, having already expected the answer. She knew that he would try and try despite the end results being the same. Maybe in the end that might be enough, but she wasn't so sure now. Still, she had to ask. "Why?"

"Because it's a surprise."

That response caught her off guard and she wasn't sure how she should react to that. A surprise? What the hell could he possibly have planned? "What kind of surprise?"

"Wouldn't be a surprise if I told you," he answered quickly and she could make out a ghost of a smile from within the shadows, his hands having long since gone back to their hovered resting point. "I just have to make sure everything's in place but I think you'll like it. And because there's a lot to do to make sure it all pans out right, it means I won't be around as often as usual. I'll try to check in whenever I can but they'll be sporadic visits at best, probably not near as long as usual either. I just need you to hold on a little while longer. Can you do that?"

Rinoa bit her lip unsure of what to make of this. She was curious of what he had to offer and yet doubtful that anything he could do at this point would make up for the abandonment. But a part of her still craved the attention and the constant visits with him and was terrified that pushing him away would put an end to those.

But there was more to it than that. She could tell by a spark in his eyes that he was excited about this. It was a spark she hadn't seen before in any of the time they had spent together, not since that night when he'd first brought her the supplies needed for a makeshift shower, or when he'd talked to her about his imaginary family. That spark had been and even now seemed to be the first signs of life that overpowered his skittish and hesitant nature.

So she nodded in response to his question, knowing that her answer was just as much for him as it was for herself. His grin widened at the sight and he nodded seemingly to himself. "Okay. I've gotta go now, but I'll try to be back later to see how you're doing." He seemed to look over to the left before pointing at her discarded tray, food and all still there. "You should probably eat that."


	6. Chapter 6: Revelations and Surprises

Despite her misgivings, Squall had actually kept true to his word. While his visits weren't as long as they usually were, they were constant and numerous throughout the day. Rinoa could tell just from that alone that he was really very sorry for having left her by herself for so long and while she would not easily forget the hurt she had felt, she could at least forgive. That left only her curiosity for the unknown, wondering what he could possibly have planned that would take him away from her for so long.

After the first day her appetite had returned with a vengeance. The food had always been edible, but she found that her first helpings were the most delicious things she'd ever tasted. She told herself it was just her imagination and the prolonged hunger that changed the taste, but she was still disappointed when her next course was not quite as good.

Over the next several days Rinoa tried to get out of him what he was planning, but Squall was as tight-lipped as ever, refusing to even give her a hint. He did tell her that when everything was set up she would know. That didn't leave her curiosity sated, it left it only wanting more and she was left in frustration each and every time he left her to mull over his words.

At least it was a distraction from her homesickness, but it was infuriating all the same.

It was the first visit of the fourth day that she suddenly heard Squall coming in near midday. This startled her because she had never heard him coming before, but she couldn't help the grin that spread her features as she heard him approach the bars. But then she saw a towel passing through them and, immediately realizing what it was, she managed to reach them before they could fall to the ground. She did notice a difference in the weight though, like there were things between the folds that had never been there before.

She looked up at Squall hesitantly, waiting for some clue. The guy was smart and he took it for what it was. "I brought some extra things for you today. You'll like them."

"Conditioner?" Rinoa asked hopefully as she returned to eye the towel in her hands.

"Among others," he supplied cryptically. "Open it."

Without further delay, Rinoa began to unfold the towel, only to stop as some of the contents threatened to spill out and onto the floor. Crouching down, she dropped the towel and began to properly unfold it, only to gape and gasp at the treasures it hid within. There was the trusted shampoo bottle and bottle of soap that usually lurked within but not only did a bottle of conditioner accompany it, but a pair of socks, shorts and a t-shirt. The latter two items especially stood out to her, not because of how odd it was to see them but because of how familiar they appeared. It was like she had seen them before. It was only when she saw the logo that had been stitched near the hem of the shorts that she realized she had and she looked up at Squall, even more curious. "Where did you find these?"

It appeared to have been the question the other youth had been waiting for and he grinned knowingly. He looked almost proud of himself. "From your knapsack."

She was left gaping at him in a speechless stupor that suggested that he could continue. "Slowly I've been gathering your things from where they've been keeping them. I've had to take only a few things at a time and hide them in my room to keep from getting caught. I washed those," he indicated the clothes, "as best I could by hand, so hopefully there's no stain and they don't stink. Couldn't exactly use the washer and dryer without getting caught."

"How'd you dry them?" Rinoa asked as she lifted up the shorts. The fabric was dry, giving no indication whatsoever that water had even touched them.

"I borrowed someone's hair dryer."

"I'm beginning to think you have issues with the term 'personal property'," Rinoa said, though she spoke in jest. She wouldn't be hold these articles if it wasn't for his seemingly masterful skills at stealing.

"I put it back where I found it," Squall defended half-heartedly. Rinoa giggled in response as she examined her gym clothes a little longer while the other youth spoke. "I have your bag and everything else inside. All I'm waiting on is your cellphone to finish charging, so that should give you enough time to clean up."

"Enough time for what?" Rinoa asked.

Squall's grin widened, another sign that told he had been waiting for this question. "To leave in time for you to make your mom's birthday."

Again Rinoa was left to gape at him, the words and their import flittering through her mind over and over again as she weighed their meaning. At first she was unable to find her voice, so shocked she was at this turn of events but slowly the part of her brain that controlled her vocal cords let up enough for her to speak, though even then it was barely above a whisper. "I'm going home?"

Squall nodded his head, a sight barely discernable against the darkness that surrounded him. Rinoa would have hugged him if it wasn't for the bars that separated them, though that didn't stop her from squealing in delight, bouncing up onto her feet as she did a couple of enthusiastic jumps. She was suddenly filled with giddy energy, so much so that she didn't know what to do with herself.

If there was enough space in the cell, she probably would have started cartwheeling the length.

"In fact," Squall said, sounding very much like he hated interrupting her victory dance. This sobered Rinoa (only a little) and she stilled her movements, though was unable to wipe the huge grin off her face as he continued. "I'm gonna go check up on the phone. I just thought you might want to look presentable for your parents."

Rinoa clapped her hands in front of her mouth and giggled in her excitement. She was going to go home. She was going to see her parents again. She'd be able to go back to her life, go back to school and socialize with her classmates and friends. Despite returning to her life though Rinoa was damned sure that this experience had changed her. She decided that, no matter way, she was not going to take this gift for granted.

The first thing she would do when she got home was apologize profusely to her parents. The next thing she'd do was go shopping for some new clothes, probably a really fluffy and furry bath-towel. Maybe even go to the park or the movies, do something – _anything _really. She would do everything she possibly could to take her mind off of this ordeal, off the very people who'd brought her to this hateful place to begin with.

The very thought of those guys was enough to sober her though and she stopped bouncing from foot to foot, instead allowing her legs to drop out from underneath her as she sat back down heavily. In her elation she was forgetting one thing and it made her feel ashamed of herself. The first thing she'd done was think about how this turn of events would benefit her, forgetting that she was only one half of the equation.

Squall seemed to pick up on the change in atmosphere. She could tell when he spoke up that he was no longer smiling and the tone he used gave away his concern. "What's wrong? I thought this was what you wanted?"

"More than anything," Rinoa said back, though her tone lacked conviction. Truly it was the very thing she'd been wanting ever since she'd first found herself in the cell. But things had changed between then and now. "But what about you?"

She'd confused him. His tone betrayed that much. "What about me?"

"Well, I'll be gone but you'll still be here…" Rinoa said fretfully as she reached up and played with the ends of her hair. "They'll find out that I've escaped and when they do they're gonna want answers. They'll want to know what happened. I know they can't see you on the cameras but they'll eventually put two and two together. When they find out what you did, they're gonna be so angry… I can't even begin to imagine what they'll do to you when…"

"I don't care."

Rinoa stopped abruptly at the interruption and simply stared at him, wondering if this was the same boy she'd met a month ago. The same boy who'd told her that he had been worried about the consequences should he take pity on her and allow her to leave. And yet here he was now doing what she'd wanted him to do for so long without a care for what could potentially happen to him. She knew she couldn't let him go through with it, no matter how heartbreaking it was. So she shook her head resolutely and fought against the tears that threatened to fall from her eyes. "No, I can't let you go through with it. I _won't _let you get hurt just because I'm homesick."

"You never asked to come here in the first place," Squall argued. Rinoa knew that if she had been a spectator she would have thought the whole argument was ridiculous. "And seeing you that upset made me realize that I'm just as bad as they are. I didn't kidnap you, but when I chose not to do anything about it I was choosing to help keep you from your family and make you miserable. I can't sit back and continue to do nothing anymore."

"But I can't let you get hurt just to right a wrong," Rinoa argued back. "They've already done enough to you."

"Which means they can't do much worse to me if they do realize I was responsible," Squall pointed out. There was a shift from beyond the bars that told the girl that he had sunk down so he was sitting at eye level. "You called me your friend before. I called you the exact same thing, but really that's just a word if you don't do anything to back it up. As your friend I want to do everything in my power to make you happy. If helping you get back to your family is what it takes, then that's what I'm going to do, consequences be damned."

Suddenly he stood back up, as if the action signalled the end to this argument. "I'll be back soon, with your bag and your phone. That should give you enough privacy to clean up."

And then he was gone, his footfalls trailing off into the distance before the door closed behind him. Rinoa was left sitting there in a stunned stupor, not having excepted the abrupt end to the exchange but she soon realized that there wasn't much she could do to change his mind. The damage had already been done. The theft had already been orchestrated. Really, there was no going back.

Her conscience told her she was just trying to placate herself with these facts. That she was just trying to make herself feel less guilty for leaving him behind in the dark while she ran back into the light. That was when she realized she couldn't just leave while knowing that she couldn't bring him with her.

It would start another argument and he seemed to be in a stubborn and argumentative mood. Squall had already told her why he refused to run away from this place, but she knew that if she could just sit him down for five minutes and explain her side of things that he just might reconsider. If he knew that he wasn't alone in the world and that he didn't have to face the next stage in his life by himself, he would leave and never look back. Of this, she was positive.

Sliding out of her school uniform made her feel gross and even in the dull light she could tell that there would be no salvaging it. The odour alone was enough to peel paint but the stains that coated the under arms and collar would never properly come out no matter how often it went through the washer. She removed her socks – also unsalvageable – and tossed them into the corner with the ruined clothing. When she finished washing away the dirt and grime that had built up since the last cleaning, she pulled on the gym uniform. The clean fabric almost foreign against her skin, the fact that they weren't coated in sweat and didn't cling to her was a strange sensation, one that she feared she would never get used to. The new pair of socks were next to follow suit, leaving her hair as the only thing left to clean.

She was just about done when she heard the door in the distance open and close, making her jump at the sudden noise. At first she thought that Squall must have impeccable timing and a quick glance at the watch told her that it was between mealtimes. That had to mean that Squall was back with her bag and her phone, just as he said he would be. But then the footfalls sounded and her excitement at her friend's return shifted into apprehension as she realized those were boot clad feet she was hearing, not the tell-tale _slaps _of bare feet. Slowly, almost cautiously, she turned to face the bars, even as the steps came closer. She was like a deer frozen in headlights, so shocked that the noise had seeming come from nowhere that she couldn't move, couldn't _breathe_.

Then a set of hands she didn't recognize appeared from the darkness outside the cell. These hands were larger and looked more adult-like than the other youth's did. By the time she finished scrutinizing the unfamiliar hands the door to her cell was opened and in stepped a man that looked like he could've been a wrestler. He was almost three times the size of her with muscled-arms about as thick as three branches, his head shaven down to the skin. As intimidating as he seemed to be in the light of the cell it was his eyes that betrayed the cruelty that lay beneath the exterior and suddenly Rinoa was uncomfortable being in the same room with him. Slowly she backed away until she was pressed up against the wall as this monster of a man continued his approach.

"W-what're you doing here?" Rinoa asked in a voice that refused to stop shaking. The towel she had been using hit the floor and exposed her wet hair to the cool air, causing her to shiver as the still-wet strands touched her shoulders through the thin material of her shirt.

He stopped his approach at the sight of the towel, seemingly not having seen it until now. Crouching down, he picked up the fabric in a show of inspecting it before his eyes trailed along the rest of the room. They crawled to the corner where the discarded ruined clothing lay, before tracking back to the sink where the bottles of hygienic products rested. Even the soap did not escape his gaze, which eventually shifted to rest onto her. Rinoa swallowed hard because she did not like how dark those eyes seemed. Worse was the way they crawled over her form, from her shoes all the way to her eyebrows. She had to force herself not to shudder.

"So I guess I can tell the others where all their crap's been disappearing to," he spoke, his voice gruff and just as cruel sounding as the rest of him looked. "But he's smart, I'll give him that. Only taking what he needs at a time instead of large amounts to tie him over. Well, I supposed that'd be a 'she' now, wouldn't it? Guess he wasn't stealing for himself, now was he, girly?"

He had closed the distance so that they were standing barely a couple of inches apart and she could smell the stale stench of alcohol and cigarettes that almost sent her gag-reflex in an uproar. His arm snaked out faster than she could register and as a result she wasn't quick enough to get out of range. His hand clenched around a fist-full of hair and he forced her close enough to stare her in the eye, eliciting a wounded whimper from her as his hold was not at all gentle.

"Please don't hurt me," she begged in a quivering voice. She could barely speak at all, because her voice was tight with a fear that settled in the pit of her stomach and threatened to crush her windpipe in its intensity.

"Bit late for that, girly," the guy said, and he almost sounded too pleased. "Daddy decided not to pay for your safe return. Instead, the stubborn prick got the cops involved. So we've decided to cut our losses and start over. Sadly, that means getting rid of all evidence, including you."

Rinoa whimpered again at the implication those words held, of the deadly promise he had just spoken. But then she felt a light and gentle touch against her cheek that caused her to shutter behind closed eyes. "Ah, now don't cry. I didn't say I was gonna finish you yet. We're gonna have some _fun _first, you and I. I'll try to be gentle, but I can't promise anything. When the mood strikes, well… a pretty thing like you probably knows how it is…"

At the guy's touch she jumped with a gasp and she realized just how deep into it she was. From the demanding yet gentle caresses to just how evil his eyes were told her all she need to know about this creep. Twisting in his grasp she surprised him by spitting in his face before she ran right for the open cell door. But she was forced back as he violently pulled at her hair, pulling from her a sharp and pain-filled cry as she was forced back against the wall. He held her in place with hands digging painfully into her arms and when he spoke his face was pressed up against hers, filling her nose with his disgusting breath once again. "You got some fight in you I see," he almost purred and she felt sick to her stomach at the sound. "That's good. I was hoping you liked it rough."

But then he let out a pained grunt and released his grip on her enough that she fell to the ground, landing on her rear. Rinoa put as much distance between herself and this monster as she could, until she was pressed so far into the corner she thought she might disappear in it. But she was startled when the creep didn't even bother to try and chase after her. Instead he hit the ground with a _thud _that almost echoed off the walls as Squall dropped the knapsack – _her _knapsack – that he had used to hit him with. As the guy started to rise to his knees, the youth dropped the bag and pulled out a heavy looking textbook before stepped forward and smashing it against the back of the guy's head before bringing it up and doing it again.

She was so terrified at what had almost happened that she didn't immediately register that this was the first time she had seen her night-time visitor outside of the dark. Light skinned with dark coloured hair that fell into his face, he was actually about a head taller than she was and not near as muscular as her attacker had been. She realized that it was his quick acting, his silent movement and his impeccable timing that had taken out the giant and unfortunately she didn't like his chances should the guy stand up and shake off the head injury.

Rinoa forced herself up onto shaking legs and managed to close the distance between herself and her saviour, stopping him before he could strike the man a fourth time. It was clear that the attacker had been rendered unconscious but she was too terrified of him to want to check and see if he was even breathing. But both this man's actions and the way Squall had reacted seemed to suggest that her earlier thoughts were right and she eyed the downed man in disgust. "I take it _this _is Larry?"

Squall nodded almost numbly, seemingly forgetting the textbook he held in his hands. So as not to provoke the other youth Rinoa was eventually able to gently pry it out and when she took in the cover she almost snorted. Math had finally done some good for her. But she chose not to voice her mental quip because her vocal cords were tight with emotion and the unnerved look on Squall's face was enough to tell her that now was most definitely not the time. "They said they were going to kill me."

"Then we'd better leave now," Squall said as he retrieved her bag. He eyed the camera in the upper hand corner and suddenly Rinoa was sick with worry, realizing that whoever was surveying the tapes would know of what had just happened. But then she realized there was something missing from the camera and it took her a second to realize what it was.

"Wait…" she said. By this point Squall was almost at the entrance of the cell – having returned her textbook to the folds of her backpack – and he turned to see what had happened, his eyes instantly darting onto Larry's prone form before turning back to her in confusion. Rinoa pointed at the camera to guide his attention. "The camera's not recording. That blinking red light's gone."

Squall moved to stand beside her and after a second his features slackened, betraying that he too caught sight of the lapse. "How long has it been like this?"

"I don't know," Rinoa admitted. "I didn't notice it until now."

"Then we may just have some time after all," Squall said. "So let's not waste it. C'mon."

He led the way out of the cell with Rinoa close behind, though not before giving Larry's body a hate-filled kick in the side for good measure. Not even a sound left the prone man's lips and Rinoa started to wonder if Squall really hadn't killed him. She found herself not caring at the moment and blamed it on the shock of the attack and near-attempted rape, deciding to put it out of her mind if only for now.

Instead of heading to the door she had heard open and close so often now, he took her down a corridor further beyond her cell. Not knowing where she was going, Rinoa could only follow and hope he didn't get turned around. But then she remembered what he had told her all those nights ago. He'd explored this place utterly and completely during bouts of boredom and knew it like the back of his hand. Renewed faith was what fuelled her enough to keep pace with Squall, who was practically jogging in his haste to lead her out of there.

After a few turns they came across a room that Squall closed and locked behind him. Rinoa looked around and realized that there didn't look like there was any other way out. That renewed faith was the only thing keeping her from questioning his motives and allowed her to believe that he knew what he was doing. She saw a handle that led to a light bulb but when she moved to turn it on, Squall grabbed her hand gently to stop her. "If anyone else passes by and sees the light from under the door, they'll come in to investigate," he offered in explanation. With a nod, Rinoa lowered her hand and left things the way they were.

But then she noticed a small light pointed at the wall across from the door and realized Squall must've thought to bring a flashlight or something. He was currently standing on one side of a desk that took up the centre most space of the wall and soon he was pushing it along the floor. Getting the idea, Rinoa moved to his side to help him and after some effort and at least a minute of pushing the desk was out of the way. The sight behind it left Rinoa gasping in shock.

There was a hole in the wall. It wasn't tall enough that anyone could just walk through it and looked like it stretched for miles on end. Squall gestured that this was where they were going next and waited until she was through the entrance before he followed. Gripping the very bottom of the desk, he slowly managed to pull it back into place, leaving them both depending on the flashlight he had attached to the hem of his pants.

"I used to use a curtain to cover the hole," Squall explained when he was done. "When I got bigger and strong enough, I moved the desk in front of it, because I was afraid the curtain might not be enough. No one else knows about this tunnel. We should be okay, so long as we keep moving."

"How old is this tunnel," Rinoa asked in a whisper, noting that it was wide enough for two people to crawl through side by side comfortably. It looked like it had been dug up as some kind of secret passage, and knew Squall couldn't possibly have carved it.

"Older than me, that's for sure," Squall answered, confirming her suspicions. "Found it one day while I was wandering by myself. No one could find me for hours, not that anyone actually looked. It leads about a mile or so away from here, so it should be safe enough to call your parents when we reach the end."

"And you're not scared?" Rinoa asked, puzzled at the lack of fear lacing his tone. She would have imagined him to be a nervous wreck, knowing what lay beyond the tunnel.

"Of course I'm scared," Squall admitted. "But I'm more afraid of getting caught _before _you get home."

Rinoa nodded in response, realizing that he was pushing past the fear to get her as far as he possibly could. Still, she didn't want to push him into doing something he wasn't ready to, and cleared her throat awkwardly before speaking, mindful to choose her words careful so as not to offend him. "You know, you don't have to take me all the way outside. If it makes you more comfortable, I could just call my parents from outside the tunnel and you could wait inside until I'm done. I know you're not exactly fond of being outdoors, but…"

Squall turned to face her, giving her a confused look. "Who told you that?"

"You did," Rinoa responded. "You said you'd never been outside."

"Yeah, outside the _compound_," Squall stressed the last word. "At least not on my own. I'm not agoraphobic, I've been outside before. Technically I'm not really allowed to be but It's not because I'm afraid or anything."

Rinoa could only stare helplessly at this startling revelation and Squall's face fell at the sight. "That's what you thought it was, wasn't it? You thought I was too scared to go outside?"

"I'm sorry," Rinoa stammered, feeling her face heat up as humiliation set in. That's what she got for making assumptions. "I just assumed…"

"No, it's okay," Squall assured, sounding very much like he wanted to drop the subject matter. This made Rinoa even more embarrassed. "It was just a case of miscommunication. It happens all the time. We'd better start moving before someone sees the light from under the door."

Rinoa nodded, somewhat grateful for the change in topic. "You lead the way."

They crawled for a little while in companionable silence, the light tap of hands against the rock and dirt that surrounded them as the only sounds that were made as the continued along the tunnel. While it was comfortable, she couldn't help but feel like she should say something. After all, Squall was risking his own safety just to get her back home. Companionable silence just felt like a cheap way of showing her appreciation for everything he was trying to do.

Eventually, she settled on the only thing she could think of to say, as unoriginal and clichéd as she thought it was. "Thank you."

"Don't thank me," Squall said, and that surprised her despite not knowing what to have expected. "I don't deserve your thanks."

"Squall, you were just terrified," Rinoa said. "It's not that you didn't want to help. You were just afraid of being caught or getting into trouble. You haven't exactly led the easiest of lives so I can't hold that against you. And besides, you're making up for it now. That speaks volumes."

"No, you don't understand," Squall said in that small voice. "I wasn't helping you before not just because I was afraid of what might happen to me. That was only part of it. I didn't help you because I promised myself that I wouldn't."

This admission forced Rinoa to stop suddenly. Squall followed shortly after, but she couldn't tell what he was thinking because he was refusing to even look at her. "What? Why would you do that?"

"It wasn't _you _personally," Squall started with a sigh. "I made this promise long before I even met you."

"What do you mean by that?" Rinoa asked but suddenly realized that she didn't need to. Squall's words from when they first met came back at her and she connected the dots herself. "You told me that I wasn't the first person they grabbed."

"And you weren't," Squall said. "But you aren't the first person I tried to help escape either."

"But you weren't going to help me before?" Rinoa asked. "Why not? What made me different?"

"It had nothing to do with you," Squall said calmly, though the tone carried how ashamed he was of the admission. "The person before you died because I tried to help her escape. I acted while everyone else was off on a job but I miscalculated how long it would take them to get back. By the time they started coming back I'd taken the girl to another tunnel around here. I got scared that we'd get caught so I told her to go on ahead while I went back to my room and pretended to sleep. I told her where to go and how to get there, only she must've gotten confused because they caught her before she could escape."

He turned to face her and she could see the guilt in his face as he spoke. "They killed her, Rinoa. They killed her for trying to get away. I found out later that her family had paid the ransom and they were just figuring out how to go about the drop when they found her out of her cell. And they killed her, cut her up and sent her pieces to her parents, telling them that it was _her _fault she ended up like that."

There was a deathly silence that rang through the air after this confession, causing gooseflesh to run up Rinoa's arms. She wrapped them around herself in a futile effort to warm up but the chill felt like it was crawling up from beneath her bones. They had killed her. Some innocent and helpless girl had been killed all because she had wanted to go home. All because she had wanted to take her fate into her own hands and had had someone compassionate enough to try. Only for freedom to slip through her fingers and for these people to take away the one remaining thing she had left: her very life.

At that very moment, Rinoa's heart went out to the family of that poor girl, knowing that the grief they must have felt must have been unbearable. Must still be. She doubted it would go away for years to come and even then they would wonder whether it was truly their daughter's fault for trying to escape or their own for trusting these monsters to bring her back to them in one piece. The only one who seemed to break this cycle was Squall, who seemingly blamed himself for putting her in the position to be killed by these people.

"But, you can't blame yourself for something they did," Rinoa argued. She couldn't stand knowing that he believed himself responsible for this girl's death when he had only been trying to help her get home.

"Yes I can," Squall said sharply. "I can and I do, and it's true. Her blood is on my hands because I was just too afraid and too concerned for my own wellbeing to even consider her own. If I had stayed with her, she would have made it back home to her family. She wouldn't have been caught and she wouldn't have been killed. I'm a coward, Rinoa, too absorbed in my own shit to do the right thing without a personal stake. So when I realized what happened, I realized I couldn't keep doing what I was doing if I wasn't one hundred percent committed because that was how people get killed, regardless of good intentions."

But then the parallels of their situations came crashing down on Rinoa, and she couldn't help but marvel at the irony of it. Words he had spoken to her not once, but twice flitted across her mind like a whisper and she came to the dull realization that, in his own way, he had been trying to protect her. _In the end, you're probably safer not trying to leave anyway,_ he had told her. He hadn't said it to be malicious, he had said it to deter her from trying, because he had witnessed it happen before.

He was trying to make up for past mistakes by keeping her alive.

She clapped a hand over her mouth as the realization weighed on her and she sank down against the stone they crawled along, unable to move as she came to terms with this. But if he had been trying to protect her, to keep her alive, what had changed his mind? It didn't make any sense. What was so special about her that it had changed his entire outlook on the situation enough that would force him into action?

It was a few seconds before she could will her vocal cords to speak through the shock that coursed through her. Her throat was tight with emotion, knowing that he had done all he could to protect her from them, from hearing everything that he was telling her now. "But if you made that promise, what made you decide to help me get out?" She asked in a voice barely above a whisper.

"I already told you," Squall answered simply. "I didn't like seeing you like that. I didn't like watching you as miserable as you were."

"So it was guilt that caused you to help me?" Rinoa asked, unsure of whether she liked this answer. She couldn't help but wonder if maybe it would have been better if she'd just kept her mouth shut and enjoyed their companionable silence.

"No… yes…" Squall seemed to struggle with his answer and he groaned out of frustration at his inability to articulate his thoughts. "Honestly, if you were anyone else, I probably would have just kept my promise." He sighed heavily, as though ashamed to admit this allowed. "But you're different from everyone else. You actually cared, not just because I was someone who could potentially help you escape. Maybe that's all I was to you before, but I could sense that your concern for me was genuine. Not something to use to manipulate me into doing what you wanted me to. From the moment you asked me my name I knew that much about you, because anyone else wouldn't have even thought to do that. No one else _did_."

He sank down beside her, more than likely having realized that they weren't going anywhere anytime soon. They were far enough away that the light from the flashlight wouldn't be spotted by anyone passing by that room, but they were still not far enough to see a light at the end of that tunnel, the one that would promise fresh air and freedom that the outdoors provided. "But the real wakeup call was the night you freaked out, saying that all you wanted was to see your mother again. I realized that what I was doing wasn't helping. I was keeping you from the people you care about and it was making things worse the longer you stayed away. It made me realize I was hurting you just as bad as they were. And I decided that if I truly cared about you that I had to let you go. It was a hard decision, but it's the right one."

He looked back at her then, offering her a small smile that looked strained as he confessed all of this to her. "In the end, I know now that it's better to get you back to the people who care about you most than it is to keep you here for the sake of keeping you alive. That was the only reason I needed to get me to help you out."

"You are a wonderful person, you know that?" Rinoa asked through the tears that had gathered in her eyes. Her throat felt like it was swollen shut and it made it very difficult to speak but she pushed through the pain. "I can't believe that these bastards haven't seen that. I guess it's their loss that they didn't take the time to care about you. Why did they even take you in if they thought of you as just a burden?"

"Honestly, I've never asked," Squall answered sincerely. "And I'm not a mind reader, so I can't profess to know what they were thinking. Maybe they did it to look good to the community, I don't know. But it wasn't _all _bad living here."

Rinoa shot him a disbelieving look that he chuckled at. "Seriously? After everything you've told me, you expect me to believe that?"

"I said there weren't very many people who cared about me. I never said you were the only one." He sighed then, resting his head against the rock. "I think I've been focussing mostly on the negative. There are some positives to this place."

"Such as?" Rinoa challenged.

"Well, for starters, I've got a roof over my head," Squall said matter-of-factly. "I have bed to sleep in at night, and a constant source of food and water, despite it not being the best fare most of the time."

Rinoa wrinkled her nose at the reminder. "Oh, so they feed you guys that crap too?"

Squall snorted. "I didn't see you complaining when you wolfed down that helping the other day after I told you to eat."

"That was after not having eaten for a couple of days," Rinoa protested. "_Anything_ would taste good after that!"

Squall laughed at that and Rinoa joined in before sobering just as quickly as he sighed. "And yes there was someone else here that was different from the others. He's the one who warned me about Larry in the first place when he could've just looked the other way and kept to himself. I looked up to him when I was much younger."

Rinoa stiffened as she heard the use of the past tense and frowned lightly as she turned her gaze back up to face her friend. "What happened to him?"

"He's gone," Squall said through a shrug, as if it were as simple as that. "He died when I was just a kid. His name was Dan. He was a good guy. Actually, he was the one who started helping some of the people they brought get back home. He kind of introduced me to the tradition. He only helped certain people though; I'm not sure why he only helped who he did, just that he was more selective than I was."

Squall snorted suddenly, as though recalling a memory. "I didn't know what he was doing until I went looking for him when I was eight. Caught him trying to drag this scared looking skinny boy down the hall without being spotted. The looks on their faces when they saw me standing around the corner was priceless, though at the time I thought they were just playing around or something. Later he bribed me with some cookies he managed to take from the kitchen to buy my silence… not that he'd needed to. I probably would've done anything he'd wanted just because he'd asked."

"Dan sounds like a nice guy," Rinoa commented when the slight pause turned into an actual silence. "I would've liked to have met him."

"I think he might have liked you," Squall remarked offhandedly. "He would have saved you, probably on that first night."

"Okay, okay," she said as she lightly slapped him on the shoulder before forcing herself up. "You can stop beating yourself up about that. What's done is done, and you're making up for it now. We can only move forward now. Speaking of which, we should probably start moving again now, before they figure out we've both disappeared and they find Larry in my place."

There was very little talk after they resumed their movements, progressing further and further into the tunnel. It wasn't too much longer before the sight of the outdoors could be seen from further ahead and not much longer after that when they reached the very end. The board that covered the entrance let some of the moonlight through the cracks but when Squall kicked it out they were practically bathing in it. He was the first to jump down and caught Rinoa when she followed suit.

The sky was dark, signalling late into the night. She marvelled at the little specs of light that littered the sky, illuminating their surroundings only dimly. The breeze and the fresh air were what was calling to Rinoa and she simply basked at being able to breathe it in, hearing the sounds of the night as the wind caressed her face.

Squall seemed content to let her have her fun but after a few minutes of just letting it all sink in, of knowing that she was so close and yet so far from the end, he chose to interrupt her. "There's an intersection close by to the road. We should probably make the call from there."

Rinoa agreed to the plan and followed him as they walked down the street. She noticed that to her left they were surrounded by grass and trees, though the latter were spaced out enough that she didn't think they were in a forest. It was more like a city park. A couple minutes later she found themselves by the intersection Squall had mentioned, though there was also a bench across from a stop sign in a road that could easily fit four rows of cars side-by-side.

When they reached the bench Rinoa plopped herself down on the wooden surface, her fingers trailing the groves and indentations left in the structure. This was all still so very surreal and she couldn't help but want to memorize every imperfection her fingers managed to trace over even as Squall reached into his pants pocket and withdrew her cell phone. She was momentarily interrupted when Squall held it out to her. "Make your call," he said gently. "Tell whoever answers the street we're on so they can come and pick you up. But I'd like to speak with your father, if that's okay."

"Okay…" Rinoa said uncertainly. She wanted to ask him more but she held off, unsure of what to think about his strange request. Surely he wasn't preparing to ransom her off to her father, especially after the trouble he'd gone to to help her escape behind everyone else's back. She got the sense that this was not the case, that she could trust him. He was always apologizing so maybe he wanted to make amends with him, even if he couldn't very well be held accountable for what had happened. In the end, she decided to hold off from asking any questions and take a 'wait-and-see' approach. Squall would explain in his own time if given the chance.

She took the offered phone, dialled the number that was so familiar yet so foreign to her before resting the phone against her ear. She closed her eyes and simply listened to the dial tone as it attempted to connect to the people in question, though she wasn't left waiting for long. On the forth chime, someone finally picked up. She had a woman's voice and she sounded tentative as she answered on the other end. "Hello?"

At hearing the woman's voice, whatever resolves of staying strong crack and splinter and Rinoa suddenly collapsed atop the bench behind her at a loss to what to say. Squall sank down beside her, arms propped up in case she fainted or otherwise needed the support and she barely registered the gesture before she found her voice and forced herself to speak, the woman repeating her greeting several times.

"Who is this?" The woman asked, sounding minutely irritated while maintaining the polite front that was phone etiquette.

"Mom?" Rinoa said in a voice that quivered and betrayed the sob that escaped her.

Silence continued on the other end for a moment before the woman on the other end broke down, her voice cracking with emotion as she spoke. "Rin? Rinny is that you?"

Rinoa nodded despite not seeing the other woman and her own voice cracked as she responded. "Yes, yes I'm here, it's me. I got out." She looked around for the street signs before seeing them and relaying their names to the other woman. "I'm sitting on a bench on the very corner. Can you come get me? Please? I don't know how to get home."

"It's okay Rinny. I'm on my way."

"Is Daddy there?"

"Yes, he's here. He's right here with me. Do you want to talk to him?"

Rinoa bit her lip. She did want to talk to him, but she also knew that time was limited. There was only so long until someone went looking for Squall or found Larry unconscious in the cell. Then they would start searching. She wanted to be long gone by the time they figured it out. "Yes, I wanna speak to Daddy, but there's someone with me who wants to talk to him first."

The response she received was not immediate and she realized exactly how it sounded when the silenced continued to stretch. "No, it's not like that. He's a good guy, he's the one who helped me get out."

"A-alright," and then the sound of the phone shifting took over as her mother passed the phone along. Before it finished changing hands, Rinoa wordlessly passed her phone over to Squall whose expression was unreadable. He stood up with the phone pressed to his ear and turned at an angle that was hard for her to even see his face and with that an unsettling feeling in her stomach made her feel queasy. What would he be saying that he wouldn't want Rinoa to see his face?

"You understand that I've got your daughter with me," Squall started in a tone she'd never heard from him before. It was strong and controlled, not at all the way she was used to hearing him speak and more and more she was starting to wonder what was happening. "I did not have her call me so that I can ransom her off. Money holds very little interest to me. She is unharmed, not even a hair is missing off her head. She's a little emotionally sensitive but given all that she's been through over the last month that is to be expected. You're lucky that nothing else came to that."

Rinoa sighed knowing how true those words were and who she had to thank for that. If Squall had even been a minute later than he was… she shuddered and wrapped her arms around herself, suddenly chilled to the bone. She didn't want to even think about it. But slowly she looked up and knew that he had known firsthand what cruelty Larry was capable of, and knowing what he had been about to do had forced the youth into action. She would always be grateful for his intervention.

"You can send your wife to come and pick her up and she will be waiting for you, no ambush waiting to nab her to, no expectation of retribution," Squall pressed on. "But I need a favour from you in return, and it is not negotiable. If you don't, then the people who kidnapped her will simply keep coming, and they'll continue to hurt more and more people. I can help stop it but there's only so much I can do alone, which is where you come in. Rinoa will have all of her belongings with her, save this cellphone. I'll be keeping it."

Rinoa made an incredulous noise but Squall held up his hand in a signal for her to keep quiet. Silently she fumed, because she had grown rather attached to that cellphone and did not appreciate being told she would be forced to part with it. "That way we will be able to keep in contact. I don't doubt you've got the police listening in on this call as well. That's fine. It means I won't have to explain myself twice."

There was a pause from Squall, which signalled that her father was saying something. She could hear his voice faintly, which meant he was no doubt shouting. For his part Squall simply stayed his ground and finally he started speaking again. "I'm going to hang up now, and I will call you with further instructions and information that you will need to do your part."

And just like that, he cut off the call before turning back around and slumping atop the bench. She could see how drained he was emotionally, she could see how he was second guessing himself and his actions and she realized then and there the sternness he had adopted was an action, one to garner the attention of her father. And it had worked, judging from the elder man's reaction. Rinoa could just imagine the man fuming at the audacity of this upstart and had to suppress a giggle at the thought as she focused her attention to the young man beside her.

"Are you alright?" She asked.

"I am," Squall answered through a shaky breath. "In fact, I'm better than alright. I feel like I'm actually doing something for a change, something for the better."

"I don't understand," Rinoa said slowly. "What was with the act with my dad? Why do you have to keep my phone? You could have asked me beforehand."

"I know and I'm sorry, but I think you might have talked me out of it if you knew more."

"Talked you out of what?" Rinoa asked.

When Squall looked at her, he looked so determined, so serious that she faltered in her questioning. She had never seen him this way before and she didn't know whether to be proud, to be scared or both.

"For the first time in my life, since I started helping people escape from this place, I'm committed. I've never felt conviction like this before, but I know what I've got to do now."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that helping the hostages escape is just a band aid covering up the bigger issue," Squall said as he rose to his feet. "And the bigger issue is _them_. These people who think it's okay to kidnap people off the street and threaten loved ones into giving them money just to see them again. These people, who are into way bigger things that just kidnappings and drugs and bumping off people, these _extortionists _who think it's okay to hurt others for their own personal gain. I realize now that if I want to keep this from happening again then I have to hit the problem where it starts not when it starts effecting others, otherwise I'm just enabling them to keep doing what they've been doing and that's just as bad, if not worse."

He turned to face her with an apologetic and guilty look that betrayed how he felt about his hand in all of this. "And I'm so, so sorry that it took you being kidnapped and kept away from your family to make me realize all of this."

"How do you think you're going to stop them?" Rinoa asked. "You're just one person."

"I know, that's why I'm asking your father for help," Squall replied. "I'm not stupid, I know it's gonna take more than one person to put an end to their activities. But it only takes one person to set the gears in motion. I have access to information. Maybe not readily available information but I can get it all the same. Your father has money and connections and the full cooperation of the police who are looking into these abductions. It's not ideal, it's far from perfect but it's something. And if this works, then you won't have to worry about your safety or the safety of anyone else every again. They won't be able to hurt you anymore."

"You can still help the police if you want," Rinoa said. "But you don't have to put yourself in danger to do it! That's what undercover operations are for. They can put someone on the inside, someone who isn't putting his life at risk needlessly and has the back up to pull you out should things go wrong."

"But we don't have the time, Rinoa," Squall said. "In the time it would take to bring another officer in up to speed, to give him the background he would need to successfully infiltrate a group like this will take weeks, even _months_ to do properly. And even then, there's no guarantee he'd have the access to the same stuff that I can already get without being noticed. I want to do this. I _have _to. And aside from you, there's not much left for me to lose anyway, they've already taken my confidence and my pride."

"Squall, you don't have to do anything," Rinoa pleaded. "You've already done more than enough, more than what most people would do."

"Then what would you have me do? Just sit with my hands up my ass while the police launch an investigation while other people are getting hurt? I don't like working with them anymore than you like me helping them but the only reason I've turned to them is because we both want the same thing. We want these kidnappings to stop. _I _can make that happen."

"Then come with me," Rinoa said. "Come with me when my mom comes to pick me up. You can give them any information they have and they can make their arrests."

"But they won't even get a fraction of them that way," Squall protested. "For this to work, they need to apprehend _everyone_. Not just the stragglers sitting around waiting for orders, or the fall-guy left holding the bag. _Every single person _involved in this group. And the only way the cops have any hope of arresting everyone is if I help them from the other side. You don't have to like it. But you do have to accept that this is my decision, and that I've already decided."

Suddenly he sighed, allowing his head to fall into his hands. "I don't want to fight with you, Rinoa. I just want this to be over."

"I don't want to fight either," Rinoa said in a small voice. "I just don't want you to get hurt or worse because you think you owe it to someone."

"I owe it to myself to try."

Sighing, Rinoa decided that it was probably best to drop the discussion and they sat together in silence before she felt the need to break it. "Not that I'm complaining, but I didn't expect for you to wait with me."

Squall shrugged. "I want to make sure you get to your mom safely. No half-ass jobs this time. The same thing will not happen twice."

"But what if they miss you?"

"I'll figure it out," Squall said. "They probably won't believe my excuse but they won't pressure me too much. That'd imply that they actually missed me."

"I know you said you wanted to do this," Rinoa said despite her earlier decision to drop the discussion, "but you don't have to walk back into this pit."

"I don't plan on staying in this pit much longer anyway," Squall responded. "And if things go my way then this pit won't exist for much longer."

That silence was back, broken bit by bit by crickets and someone's pet dog from somewhere nearby. A light breeze rustled the grass and leaves from the surrounding trees. Again Rinoa found herself compelled to speak. "So… after this… will I ever see you again?"

"Probably not," Squall answered, though his tone betrayed his disappointment at this. Rinoa felt the same way, feeling like she'd just made a friend that would last her years and years to come. "I don't see myself staying in this city to be perfectly honest."

"Where would you go?" Rinoa asked.

"Not sure." He shrugged, his shoulders slumping with the answer. "But I'll have all the time in the world to figure it out, hopefully."

"You could always stay at my place," she offered and even as she said it she realized she was not at all against the idea. "It's a big house, plenty of space for four instead of three."

"Yeah, somehow I'm not sure that'd work," Squall said through a chuckle. "But thank you for the offer."

"Just think about it," Rinoa urged, nudging his shoulder with her own.

"Rinoa," he said, his tone a light warning but then he looked at her and she flashed him a winning smile and batted her eyelashes in what she hoped looked like an appealing matter. He turned away with the shake of his head and a smile in his features and a barely repressed chuckle. "Alright, maybe."

She continued to grin even after he'd looked away but found herself watching him even after the fact. She couldn't even begin to imagine living the life he had, one filled with no one who cared for him. To know that someone had actually done just that, even though they died in the end, made her feel a little better but she also knew it must've had the effect a light bulb does when it finally goes out, making the darkness seem all the more dark.

Somehow she knew this would be the last time she saw him, regardless of his sort-of commitment to live at her house. And she didn't want to just leave things off with the silences that had filled their gaps of conversations, and she most certainly did not want to leave it off with an argument over his safety. When he finally walked away and out of her life she wanted him to know that there was still someone in this world that cared about him, even gave a damn about him. She wanted him to know that no everyone was out to hurt him either physically, mentally or psychologically as he had been hurt. Only one idea came to mind and the thought that she would even entertain it should have scared her but it didn't. In a way it felt almost like the right answer. Still she hesitated because she didn't know how well he would receive it but in the end she decided to just put her best foot forward and try it anyway.

"Squall?" She said tentatively and immediately she had his attention. And before she could second guess or hesitate any further she leaned forward and pressed her lips against his.

In the back of her mind she realized what a stupid idea this had been. That after all the trauma and the abuse he'd already been through this would be enough to scare him away for good. But it didn't. At first he just sat there, seemingly without a clue of what to do but then she felt him ease into the kiss, and miraculously enough he even started to return it, almost mimicking her motions. She felt a hand against her face, the palm resting against the back of her head and a thumb brushing at the strands of her hair and she reached around so that her hands are draped over his shoulders, pulling him closer.

But then he stopped and pulled away, the motion so sudden that it instantly sent alarm bells screaming throughout Rinoa's mind. She opened her eyes – had no idea when she'd closed them – and realized that their surroundings were much brighter than they had been seconds (minutes?) before. When she turned around, she spotted a car pulling into the side of the road and when the lights dimmed somewhat she recognized the car and make. More importantly she recognized the woman that was retracting her seatbelt and preparing to exit the vehicle.

"Mom!" Rinoa cried and instantly she was off the bench, running forward as her mother stepped out of the car. She collided into the elder woman, who couldn't be bothered to close the car door and they just stood there in that hug for what felt like eternity. The only thing they said to each other for a while was how much they had missed each other but that was not all Rinoa wanted to say.

"I'm sorry, I'm really, really, sorry about that morning. I was being selfish and stupid and I'm so sorry!"

Then she threw her arms around her mother's neck so tightly she thought they might end up frozen that way, promising herself that she might not ever let her go. But eventually she was forced to do so as both she and her mother collapsed onto the grass and just cried. The elder woman kissed her daughter on the forehead numerous times as they just hugged each other.

"Rin," her mother said suddenly and Rinoa looked up at the sound of her own name. "Rin, where's the boy who helped you?"

Rinoa turned around to gesture to where Squall was only to find that he was gone. The bench they had been sitting at moments ago was bare of anyone presence. Her bag was still there and when she moved over to search it she found that it was still zipped up tight. The only thing missing was her cellphone, which Squall had been holding onto anyway.

He was gone. And she was utterly convinced that she would never see him again. Despite knowing that she would get to go home to the people who loved her most she still felt terrible inside as she just stared at that empty bench.

* * *

_The next chapter will be the last one and should be posted either later tonight or early tomorrow morning. I still have one more day to finish, dammit, and I'm gonna get it done. Thank you to everyone for their support of this story and to everyone who left a review._


	7. Chapter 7: The Smile that Tells a Story

It all seemed so surreal to her.

This had been all she'd wanted for the last month. To be reunited with her family, to return to her life and escape the horrible confines of that dank and dark cell. To be free of her kidnappers and in the safety and security her home afforded her. And now she had all of that. But she couldn't have been any unhappier.

It had taken her mother a lot of work to even get her to leave that street corner because she had been determined to find him before she did anything else. In the end it had been fruitless. He had taken advantage of their reunion and disappeared, no doubt returning to that awful place.

Rinoa had been quiet all throughout the trip home, lost in thoughts that turned themselves over and over in her mind. While she had looked forward to going back home, she also dreaded it knowing that the moment she crossed through those doors the questions would begin. The police were no doubt waiting in the wings wanting her statement and her recollection of everything and anything happened while she was held captive, more than likely right away when it was still fresh in her minds. All she really wanted was to be left alone with her thoughts, to wallow in her self-pity because there was absolutely nothing else she could possibly do to make the situation any better. There wasn't anything that _anyone _could do.

And that was exactly what happened when she walked through the front door of her house. Her father immediately greeted her at the door, everything about him betraying how grateful he was that she was alive and safe and sound, how worried he'd been about her. The men and women who were standing around the front hall dressed in black and blue at least had the decency to give them a few minutes before the questions started. She'd been guided into the living room where she was allowed to sit down with her parents as they asked her question after question, wanting to know everything she heard and saw. She'd told them everything she could remember about the cell but aside from that she had felt useless, unable to give them anything more that might help them out.

Despite learning all they could from her they stuck around and it took a little while for her to remember that they were waiting for a call. Squall's call to be precise. She wondered if they would let her talk to him, maybe try and talk him out of doing what he was doing, but then she decided they would probably wouldn't even allow it. And even if they allowed it, she didn't even know what she would say to in the first place, let alone to convince him that this was still a very bad idea.

So instead she'd just sat there, letting her head rest on her mother's shoulder and over all basking in their presence. Two pairs of cops left the house in order to walk the grounds on a patrol at some point, and eventually her mother guided her upstairs to bed.

Slowly as she was waking up in the morning, Rinoa had been terrified that she would find herself back at that cell. Lying on that crappy cot with that stupid dull bulb as the only source of light in the room, wondering if and when will she ever get out. When she opened her eyes and saw her surroundings she was disbelieving, thinking that it was a dream or wishful thinking or something. It took a few minutes for it to finally sink in and when it did she couldn't stop the tears from falling or the relieved and horrified sobs from escaping her as she collapsed against her comforter. Her parents had rushed in then, having been awakened by the sounds she was making but she had been an inconsolable mess. Despite not being trapped in that cell and having the freedom to go wherever she wanted she desperately missed it, not because she was a masochist or that she craved being locked up but because those gray eyes she got so used to seeing almost every day weren't there to greet her. It reminded her that he was still in that hell and regardless that she had tried to reason with him she felt like a failure as a result.

But she couldn't even begin to explain that to her parents. They wouldn't understand it. The best they could do was give her reassurances that they probably didn't believe in themselves and the next thing she knew she would have to talk to someone with a bunch of diplomas or degrees decorating their office about feelings and the stress that came with her abduction. The rest of the day blurred together and she lost track of what she was doing and when she was doing it. She got dressed but only because it was something she was able to do now that she was back home, but otherwise she kept close to the house, just wandering the building at her leisure. No one bothered her, only to ask her if she was okay.

After the third person asked her, she realized she hated that question.

It was sometime in the afternoon when the phone rang. The police intercepted the call with their wire taps and their recording equipment as they tried to narrow down the location as her father picked up the phone. From the way he had sat up and the gestures the police were making to keep talking, Rinoa could only assume that Squall had finally decided to call. But the call didn't last very long. No sooner had the phone rang than her father was left asking if the person on the other end was still there, the call having been disconnected. The police frowned, not having acquired the location they'd wanted but then her father was heading into his study and a couple of cops followed afterwards. Rinoa assumed that whatever information Squall was gathering, it probably had something to do with the computer.

She tried to force it out of her mind, knowing that she hadn't even had the opportunity to ask to speak to him, and resumed her wanderings. The next few days were much the same. She got up, got dressed, ate some food and continued to look around and soon she found herself falling into a routine of just being. Overtime she saw less and less uniformed personnel and soon the only ones who remained patrolled the grounds, giving the family updates every couple of hours or so and occasionally being switched out by the new shift sent to replace them.

Rinoa was tired of crying and yet she couldn't stop herself from doing so at the very miniscule and seemingly unimportant detail she would come across that reminded her of him. Otherwise she found herself feeling numb, and knew that in the end she would be forced to deal with the onslaught of feelings that were bound to hit her once that numbness went away but for now she didn't know what to think, what to do so she decided to do whatever she could to just not think about it at all. She suddenly realized now how Squall must have felt, that just the very notion of freedom was terrifying and stressful. Still, it wasn't the same not even close. Rinoa had taken the freedom she'd had all her life for granted. Squall had never once experienced it before. If she was feeling overwhelmed now that she had it back, she couldn't even begin to fathom just what he might have gone through in her place. She wondered if that was half the reason he wanted to stay.

But just as it was getting close to dinnertime, she heard her father calling her from the bottom of the stairs and almost as though her response was automatic she proceeded to the front hall where he and a couple of officers were waiting for her. She stood on the third step from the bottom and waited for them to say what they had to, but the officers shook their heads and gestured to the sitting room. She looked at her father for any sign of what was going on but he averted his gaze and gestured for her to do as she was told.

So she found herself sitting on the couch of the sitting room, her mind running a mile a minute as she wondered what they wanted to talk to her about. She had given them everything she knew after all, what more could they possibly want. But somehow, judging by the grimness of the air that hung over their heads, whatever they had gathered her here for was not good.

"We understand that you've already been through quite the ordeal," one of the officers started gently. Rinoa almost rolled her eyes but for her father's sake stopped right before she followed through with the response. She was tired of everyone treating her like some kind of fragile statue that could break at the tiniest amount of pressure, but she knew they were at a loss of how to deal with her and didn't want to come across as insensitive. Still, she just wished they'd hurry it up and get to the point.

"But your father thought that you might want to know what's happened over the last few days," he continued. Beside him his partner remained silent, trying to appear sympathetic but instead coming across as clueless. "Now, you already know that your friend – the one who helped you escape – wanted to give us some information about the people who kidnapped you. The information he had was in regards to a big job they were planning. We can't go into too much detail as of yet, but due to the information he supplied us we were able to make several arrests at the scene. Not all of them were apprehended and we're still on the lookout for the stragglers who escaped. We have their descriptions, and it's very unlikely that they'll get very far while the whole city's on watch for them.

"While we had uniforms overseeing the sting, we also managed to track down the hideout. Everyone who was in the building was taken into custody and are currently being questioned in connection to several other kidnappings that have happened over the last decade. Unfortunately, even with the description you were able to give us, we have yet to locate your friend."

"We haven't found any bodies," the other officer spoke up in a reassuring tone to match her partners. "Which gives us hope that he's still alive and out there somewhere. We're currently circulating his picture across all media outlets in the hopes that we can find him and bring him into questioning."

"Is it possible that whoever escaped knows he was involved in the set up?" Rinoa asked, dread filling her at the very thought.

"It's very unlikely," the female officer answer. "The information concerning the sting was on a need-to-know. We made sure of it because of your friends position within the compound."

_Doesn't mean you don't have a leak somewhere,_ Rinoa mused, but she opted to keep her thoughts to herself. Especially given that her father was in the room with her.

"Despite the fact that your friend is missing, we were able to secure something from the compound," the first officer resumed before crossing the distance between himself and Rinoa and holding out his hand, fingers clenched around what looked like a plastic bag. When Rinoa accepted the offering from him she almost dropped it, like it had burned her physically.

Inside the plastic bag was her cellphone.

"It was sitting next to one of the computers, and one of the officers discovered it while our people were rounding everyone up. We've already dusted it for fingerprints, but it seems he wiped it down before leaving it there. Along with the phone we discovered a note, though again we weren't able to pull prints from it to make a positive ID."

"What did the note say?" Rinoa asked, not knowing whether or not she really wanted to know.

"It said 'I'm sorry'."

And that was that. Rinoa instantly knew that Squall had written that note. She also knew why he had done it, her thoughts returning to the last time she had seen him. That night on the bench where she'd asked him to at least consider staying at her house once everything was said and done. She wondered if he had ran because he'd somehow figured out that the police had missed a couple of people, or if he was so distrusting of everyone and anyone he decided not to take a chance by sticking around and finding out how it all went.

She vaguely remembered excusing herself before she retreated back up the stairs, wanting to be as far away from the officers as she could. Deep down she had expected this, that she might never see him again but it didn't stop it from hurting. Not really caring where she was going, she stumbled into the first room she could see and quickly closed the door behind her in the hopes that she might be left alone. She barely managed to make it to one of the chairs by the wall and she curled into it and let the tears fall as she stared at the phone she still held in hand. She suddenly hated it, because it had been her one and only link to the only person who had been there to help her the last few weeks and suddenly she wished he hadn't helped her escape after all. She just wanted to see him again, even if it was only one more time.

She stayed in that room for a while, just sitting there and crying until she was too exhausted to shed any more tears. Eventually she wiped at eyes that felt puffy and swollen and only mildly curious of where she'd ended up she looked around the room and realized it was a study. It wasn't just any study though, because the one her father used religiously was on the ground floor near the back of the house. This one had been outro fitted into a music room because of her mother's love for the piano. Pictures decorated the walls and there was a desk at the furthers part of the room opposite the door, though to be far it was as much for decoration as the pictures that littered the walls.

But as her eyes scanned each and every picture that was available to her, taking in each and every one of them with an eye that practically memorized them, she paused at one in particular. Rising to her feet, she approached that picture, suddenly curious about it because it was such a simple photo in comparison to everything else in the room. The picture was of a couple that couldn't have been her parents – the man's hair was too long for her father to have tolerated and her mother often had her hair cut to chin level. Both were dressed up and looked like they were ready to go, but it was the woman in the picture that drew Rinoa's eye especially. The man was grinning widely as though he'd just won the jackpot while the woman appeared more sedate. Her smile was smaller in comparison but it lit up her features and made her look even more beautiful than any amount of makeup could possibly accomplish.

The smile seemed almost familiar to her and she tried to wrap her head around why that was possible. She didn't think she'd ever met the couple in the picture and thought that it might be possible that she could have. But as she inspected the woman's face to jog her memory, her attention was drawn to the woman's eyes and after a while of just staring at it, Rinoa let out a gasp as she stumbled backwards in her shock, almost sinking to her knees as her legs threatened to buckle on her.

Those eyes were familiar.

More importantly, she knew _why _they were familiar.

All at once, words that had been uttered in hesitance and confidence filled her head and she slapped both hands over her nose and mouth, completely at a loss of what to do or how this could possibly have happened. _But despite the hard edge and the insistence that neither of us would survive without her picking up after us, she smiled a lot_, the inner voice said. _She had a nice smile. It always brightened up the room._ _Even when she was telling me to stop playing and clean my room I couldn't stay mad at her when she smiled at me like that._

"Mom!" Rinoa called, unable to face this alone. She needed to tell someone – anyone – about this latest discovery because she couldn't stand doing nothing about it. All this time she had been waiting for something she could possibly do to repay the debt that she had racked up and now she had that chance. But she needed to know that she was right. "Mom! Dad!"

The door to the music room opened but Rinoa didn't dare turn away from the picture, afraid that she might have imagined it even when the evidence was _right there _staring her in the face. "Rinoa?" her mother's voice called, filled with worry. The elder woman gripped Rinoa by the shoulders and stepped into her line of sight, her expression mirroring the emotion in her voice. "Rinoa, what's wrong? What happened?"

"Who is that woman in the picture," Rinoa said, purposely avoiding the question. Her mother's brow furrowed at the question and Rinoa repeated it as she pointed at the offending photo. Her mother's gaze turned away from her daughter and took in the sight.

"Rinoa, I'm not sure…"

"Just tell me who the woman is," Rinoa snapped and instantly regretted when she caught the slight flicker of hurt flock across her mother's face.

It took her a couple of seconds to answer and when she did, she spoke hesitantly as though afraid she might set her off. Rinoa ignored the look of pity, knowing that this was far more important. "She's the wife of a friend I had when I was in college," she explained slowly. "I met her maybe about a year before they were married. That photo was taken on their wedding day. We lost touch with them when they moved to Esthar, maybe a year or so before you were born."

She pursed her lips and seemed to hesitate saying what she had to say next, but then she forced herself on regardless. "Why are you asking about them, Rinoa?"

"Because _she _has his eyes," Rinoa explained, fully knowing how crazy she sounded. "_And _his smile! Everything she has he has, it can't be a coincidence, it just _can't _be!"

"Who has her eyes?" Her mother asked in confusion.

"My friend!" Rinoa burst out suddenly. "The one from that place, the one the police can't find! That woman has Squall's eyes!"

* * *

_Thanks again to everyone who reviewed and who took the time to read this story (even if you didn't review). I know the ending seems rather abrupt, but it's always been in my head that way. As incomplete as it may feel, this story is in fact complete and I'm hoping once I've plotted out everything that the next part of it will be posted... though sadly I have no hope of managing that magic trick before the end of the day tomorrow (technically today as I write this at 1:30 in the morning). I hope you guys aren't too disappointed._

_I also decided to keep Rinoa's parents nameless in this story just because they aren't all that relevant in this part. In the next part they will be named and given background themselves, but for the meantime they are simply Rinoa's Mom and Dad. Sorry if that seems like I'm not giving them much credit but this story technically was not theirs._

_Again to reiterate the mention from the first chapter: this story was written for the Where I Belong August Challenge. If you're interested in reading more Squinoa stories please feel free to check out the community of the same name, run by Eternal Tiet, aka Ashbear. Have a good night and hopefully I'll manage to pull a chapter out of my ass for the novel. _


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